Tony Blair reignited the debate about the West's response to terrorism Sunday, with a call on governments to recognize that religious extremism has become the biggest source of conflict around the world.

In an article in The Observer, the former prime minister, who led the country into the bitterly divisive Iraq conflict in 2003, appears to acknowledge that previous aspirations to export liberal democracy focused too much on political objectives.

But sources close to Blair insist that he is not in any way indulging in a mea culpa over past interventions by the West, including in Iraq.