LET us be clear that the perpetrators of the bomb attacks in Basra yesterday morning are not freedom fighters.

They are terrorists motivated by hatred, not nationalism.

That can be the only explanation for bombers who are intent on destroying soft targets, and who do not care who is killed or maimed.

No cause can justify the use of indiscriminate car bombs which tear apart buses carrying young children to school.

The resolve of the United States and Britain to stay in Iraq until the task of rebuilding the country is completed must remain intact.

Even though the handing over of sovereignty on June 30 looks increasingly unlikely, there must be no talk of abandoning the Iraqi people to the misfortunes of anarchy.

But that process will be hampered as long as US and British forces are seen as occupiers rather than liberators in the eyes of many ordinary Iraqis.

The decisions by other countries to pull out their troops from Iraq is not helping the peacemaking process and the negative perception of the Coalition.

Atrocities like those in Basra yesterday and the recent spate of kidnappings will prompt even more nations to question their involvement in Iraq.

The case for a substantial United Nations role in Iraq is overwhelming.

A concerted commitment to Iraq by the international community will stifle any lingering support for terrorists seeking civil war.

Foreign peacekeepers, serving under the flag of the UN, have succeeded in other parts of the world riven by strife and terrorism.

They have every chance of working in Iraq, where the tradition of secularism is strong.