Miliband regrets 'war on terror'

Mr Miliband seeks international co-operation to combat terrorism

The idea of a "war on terror" is a "mistake", putting too much emphasis on military force, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said.

Writing in the Guardian, Mr Miliband said the idea had unified disparate "terrorist groups" against the West.

He said the right response to the threat was to champion law and human rights - not subordinate it.

Mr Miliband is due to repeat the views in a speech later in Mumbai, India, the scene of attacks by gunmen last year.

Mr Miliband's warning comes five days before the end of US President George Bush's administration, which has led the so-called "war on terror".

The foreign secretary wrote that since 9/11 the phrase "war on terror" had "defined the terrain" when it came to tackling terrorism and that although it had merit, "ultimately, the notion is misleading and mistaken".

The phrase was first used by President Bush in an address to a joint session of Congress on 20 September 2001, in the aftermath of the attacks on New York and Washington.

Mr Miliband wrote that the phrase was all-encompassing and "gave the impression of a unified, transnational enemy, embodied in the figure of Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda" when the situation was far more complex.

Calling for groups to be treated as separate entities with differing motivations, he wrote that it was not a "simple binary struggle between moderates and extremists, or good and evil" and treating them as such was a mistake.

Terrorism is a deadly tactic, not an institution or an ideology David MilibandForeign Secretary Declining use of 'war on terror'

"Historians will judge whether [the notion] has done more harm than good", he said.

The phrase, informally dropped from use by the UK government several years ago, "implied a belief that the correct response to the terrorist threat was primarily a military one - to track down and kill a hardcore of extremists", he wrote.

But the stance he now promoted was international "co-operation".

Highlighting US President-elect Barack Obama's commitment to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, Mr Miliband said it was time to ensure human rights and civil liberties were upheld.

He suggested that the different organisations took advantage of the belief that they had one common enemy and a key way to tackle them was to stop this.

"Terrorism is a deadly tactic, not an institution or an ideology."

He is due to repeat his words in a speech later at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, in Mumbai, India, the scene of attacks by gunmen last November.

He is in the country in an attempt to mediate tensions between India and Pakistan over the attacks which killed 179 people.

He urged Pakistan's government to take "urgent and effective action to break up terror networks on its soil" and called for a resolution over the disputed region of Kashmir.