From the BBC website:
Prime Minister Tony Blair has put Britain on a war footing insisting there was "no moral ambiguity" about the war against terrorism.
"This is a battle with only one outcome - our victory, not theirs," he told the Labour Party conference.
"Be in no doubt, Bin Laden and his people organised this atrocity. The Taleban aid and abet him. He will not desist from further acts of terror.
"They will not stop helping him. Yes we should try to understand the causes of terrorism, but let there be no moral ambiguity about this, nothing could ever justify the events of 11 September, and it is to turn justice on its head to pretend it could.
"The action we take will be proportionate and targeted, we will do all we humanly can to avoid civilian casualties.
"But understand what we are dealing with. Listen to the calls of those passengers on the planes.
"Think of the children on them, told they were going to die.
"I say to the Taleban, surrender the terrorists or surrender power. It is your choice."
The prime minister stressed that everything "humanly possible" would be done to avoid civilian casualties.
War alert
But he was clearly setting the country on war alert, with the possibility of British forces taking casualties.
He said the military response would be accompanied by equally well-planned humanitarian relief.
Mr Blair, appreciating the fears over military action, said that doing nothing would be an even more dangerous course.
Another key theme of the speech was be the "power of community" as Mr Blair argued that the new world coalition against global terrorism can be a force for good.
Straw's warning
Ahead of the speech, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned that the mistakes of those who tried to appease fascists in the 1930s must not be repeated.
In a conference debate on Britain in the World, Mr Straw said: "If we believe that those who planned, those who organised and those who perpetrated these attacks in New York, Washington and Pittsburgh, can be dealt with by negotiation or by reason, then we delude ourselves.
Like fascists, these people are driven by hate, by violence and by destruction
Mr Straw said every military, diplomatic and political weapon had to be used to undermine the roots of the "perverted ideology of terrorism".
While the foreign secretary stressed the role of the United Nations in handling the crisis, Labour veteran Tony Benn went further when he insisted any military action must be authorised by the UN Security Council.
In the same debate, International Development Secretary Clare Short said the terrorist groups had to be broken up but equal effort had to be devoted to giving humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
After 20 years of war and four years of drought, the Afghan people were "on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe", she said.
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[This message has been edited by Donut (edited 10-02-2001).]
[This message has been edited by Donut (edited 10-02-2001).]