(AFP) – Sep 25, 2007

BOURNEMOUTH, England (AFP) — Britain needs strong ties with both the United States and Europe, its foreign minister said Tuesday as he sketched out a "second wave" of foreign policy under a new prime minister.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband signalled a break with the era of former Prime Minister Tony Blair by saying it was "time to learn the right lessons" of the last decade.

He acknowledged that the Iraq war, in which Blair stood shoulder-to-shoulder with US President George W. Bush in the teeth of growing public opposition, was "divisive" and that the coalition had struggled since the 2003 invasion.

"While we've won the wars, it's been harder to win the peace," he told party activists in Bournemouth, adding: "Yes, the world can be a scary place."

But despite signs that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is loosening ties to Bush since succeeding Blair in June, Miliband stressed that both the United States and the European Union were key partners for Britain's future.

"I'll always defend our alliance with the US and our membership of the EU," he said. "For me, both are permanent commitments, beyond individual personalities, they're not tactical positions."

Miliband added that Britain shared "core values" with the United States, which he said had "more power for good than any nation in the world".

His comments came amid recent signs of strains in the transatlantic alliance as British troops hand over powers to Iraqi security services in the south of the country.

Since Brown took over as prime minister from Blair, he has appointed a number of Iraq war sceptics to his Cabinet, who reportedly had private doubts about the invasion.

And it is thought that he could announce further British troop withdrawals in a statement to parliament in October.

Despite his warm words about Europe, Miliband did criticise those nations opposed to full Turkish membership, including France, saying Europe "can't be a closed Christian club".

And amid calls from many Labour lawmakers and trade unionists for a referendum on the new EU treaty, he evoked the spectre of the main opposition Conservative Party's years of splits on Europe as he called for unity.

"Europe has divided them for 15 years and it's not going to divide us," Miliband said.

Around 120 of the party's lawmakers are sympathetic to calls for a referendum, the Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday. Brown argues that the move is unnecessary because the government has secured concessions in key areas.

Miliband, Britain's youngest foreign secretary in 30 years, said he belonged to a generation which had "seen the force of progress".

"We heard the president of East Germany say the Berlin Wall would last 100 years. One month later, we watched young people our age in East Germany tear it down," he said.

"We are the optimistic generation not because we are young but because of our experience."

He added that world leaders must work out how to "share, peacefully, this crowded, dangerous, beautiful world," adding: "That, after all, is what our foreign policy, the second wave of New Labour foreign policy, is all about."

Despite his youth, he also harked back to the building of international bodies in the 1940s and 1950s, adding: "Today, we need institutions which redefine the global rules for our shared planet."

Miliband also restated a call for "urgent progress" towards a two-state solution in the Middle East and said that the international community should work with countries including Iran to bring peace to Iraq.

"We need to work with all the neighbours of Iraq to reconcile Sunnis and Shias, to prevent that conflict first fragmenting the country and then spreading like a contagion across the Middle East," he said.

Brown watched from the stage as Miliband spoke and gave him a smile and warm handshake at the end.

Meanwhile, a Channel 4/YouGov poll released on Tuesday evening put backing for Labour at 44 percent, in the immediate aftermath of Brown's debut speech to the conference as leader, with the main opposition Tories on 33 percent.

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