Continued bombing of Afghanistan could destabilise Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt and put Pakistani nuclear weapons into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists, a former defence secretary and three other British peers warned Wednesday. In a letter to The Times of London, ex-defense secretary Denis Healy said the US-led bombing campaign would lead to more civilian deaths and "more discord in Pakistan which could end in fundamentalists getting power and with nuclear weapons at their disposal."

Saudi and Egyptian regimes could also be overthrown along with a "general flare-up in the Middle East," said the letter, also signed by House of Lords members Nicolas Rea, Mary Warnock and Michael Young. “The longer the bombing continues, the greater the danger, while leaving (Osama) bin Laden untouched in his bombproof cave," it said. Healy, who led the Defense Ministry from 1964 to 1970 and was deputy leader of the Labor Party from 1980 to 1983, is the most senior member of Prime Minister Tony Blair's party to speak out against the military campaign.
Seventeen members of the House of Commons, mostly from Labor, have also rejected the war effort. Last week they forced a procedural vote in the Commons that ended with a 373-13 vote in favor of Britain's participation in the campaign. Bureau Report