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British Home Secretary David Blunkett Tuesday admitted that the American and British troops were widely seen as "villains" in the Middle East because of their war against Iraq.
"We know that for the moment we will be seen as the villains," Blunkett told the BBC in an interview.
However, he hoped such an attitude could change once the war is over and Saddam Hussein is toppled.
"Once this is over and there is a free Iraq, with a democratic state... the population as a whole will say that we want a free country, we want a state to live in where we can use our talents to the full," he said.
In contrast, the latest poll showed that more than 75 percent of Britons said "No" when asked if the American and British forces would be greeted as liberators by the Iraqi people, while 89 percent thought the coalition would not quickly crumble Iraqi resistance.
Blunkett's remarks came as the British Ministry of Defense reported a 26th British casualty in the war.
A British bomb disposal expert was killed when clearing ordnance in southern Iraq on Monday, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense.
In another BBC interview on Tuesday, George Galloway, a lawmaker from the ruling Labor Party, branded British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush as "wolves" for committing the "crime" of military action against Iraq, saying the war was illegal and urging the coalition troops to disobey orders.
(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2003)
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