Distancing himself from Prime Minister Tony Blair's stand, British Home Secretary John Reid has said the war in Iraq and Afghanistan could be a "factor" in turning young British Muslims into extremists.
Although Reid said Iraq and Afghanistan was not the cause of the problem, he went on to say, "I do believe that foreign policy is sometimes a motivating factor in radicalisation of young Muslims and the potential recruitment to terror."
It is better to be frank about it. To say it isn't a cause isn't to say it has nothing to do with the whole process," he told the Evening Standard.
Blair, who returned from a two-day trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan on Monday, has on the contrary, repeatedly denied that his foreign policy and military operations could be blamed for driving Muslim youths into the arms of terror.
Blair told members of Parliament last year that the notion that UK foreign policy was oppressing Muslims was "rubbish".
The claim that the British foreign policy was driving Muslim youth into the clutches of terrorists was put by Mohammed Siddique Khan, one of the July 7 suicide bombers, in a video shown after the attacks in London last year.
But Blair told the Commons liaison committee last November that such views had to be "challenged at every level".
Reid's remarks will fuel suspicions that the home secretary now wants to emerge from the prime minister's shadow to mount a credible challenge to Chancellor Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership, The Daily Telegraph said on Tuesday.