Blair Hints at New Phase in War
By ROBERT BARR
Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP) _ Prime Minister Tony Blair, hinting at a new phase in the coalition campaign against terrorism, said Thursday that the international effort was entering "the most testing time."

Blair, speaking at his Downing Street office, spoke of a new phase to the U.S.-led military operation against the Taliban and al-Qaida, but did not offer a timeframe or details.

"I believe that the next few weeks will be the most testing time, but we are on track to achieve the goals we set out," the prime minister said. "There will be further action that we are considering taking, again targeted."

While declining to give details, Blair added: "I don't think we have ever contemplated this being done by air power alone."

Blair has rejected calls by several aid organizations for a pause in the airstrikes to facilitate humanitarian aid shipments into Afghanistan, and a member of his Cabinet said Thursday that aid could get into Afghanistan while attacks continued.

"It isn't true to say if the bombing stopped there wouldn't be any problem in moving humanitarian supplies. To say we can't do anything until the bombing stops is factually not true," said Clare Short, British secretary for international development.

"It is not true to say that the only thing holding up relief ... is the bombing," Short said in a British Broadcasting Corp. radio interview from Pakistan, where she is visiting.

"There is also the way the Taliban behave, the pressure they put on local staff, the fact that we haven't got international staff, the fact that local staff are threatened with loss of their life if they use telephones," Short said.

Barbara Stocking, director of Oxfam, said Wednesday that it had become impossible to get aid through to Afghanistan, in part because aid workers were too afraid of attack by U.S. forces.

"We have not taken this decision lightly," Stocking said, "but we can't stand by and allow tens of thousands of people to die this winter and let millions more to go through unimaginable suffering."

On Tuesday, Roger Riddell, international director of the British charity Christian Aid, also called for a bombing pause.

French Health Minister Bernard Kouchner, the founder of Doctors Without Borders, said the international coalition against terrorism needed to move on from the bombing campaign.

"I think we have to change our strategy," he told BBC radio. "That is not to say that it was not useful and was not evident that we had to bomb, but now I think that the second step would be very welcome."

A group of Muslim parliamentarians from Blair's Labor Party said in a statement Wednesday that they supported military action in Afghanistan.

The five _ Khalid Mahmood and Mohammed Sarwar from the House of Commons, and Lord Ahmed, Lord Patel and Baroness Uddin _ said the action was essential.

"Even if no British citizens were killed, even if no Muslims had been killed, we should still take the same view of the atrocities, for they were an attack on the whole of humanity," the statement said. "Osama bin Laden and his followers do not speak for Muslims here or abroad."