Warnings of 15 years of terror as new security minister calls for some un-British 'snitching' to fight extremists

Admiral Sir Alan West said preventing people being recruited to extremism was central to beating terrorism and called for some un-British "snitching" from the public to help the cause.

"This is not a quick thing. I believe it will take 10 to 15 years," he told the Sunday Telegraph.

"But I believe it can be done as long as we as a nation apply ourselves to it and it's done across the board,"

He went on: "Britishness does not normally involve snitching or talking about someone. I'm afraid, in this situation, anyone who's got any information should say something because the people we are talking about are trying to destroy our entire way of life.

"We'll have to be a little bit un-British, I think ... and say something and tell something."

One of Mr Brown's ministerial appointments from outside party politics, he was thrust into the limelight by the London car bomb attempts which happened before his new job was even announced.

A Falklands hero and former head of the Royal Navy, he used the interview to launch a stinging attack on the term "war on terror".

"I hate that expression. It's not like a war in that sense at all. It demeans the value of a war and it demeans the value of a lot of things."

Sir Alan, who conceded that the Government was "not getting our message across properly", also said he did not like the concentration on the "Muslim community".

"I don't like the fact that we talk about 'the Muslim community' and this sort of thing," he told the paper.

"I have a lot of Muslim friends and they see themselves as British. We've got to be very careful. The threat is to our British way of life and all of our British people."

New Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has carefully calibrated her language, avoiding using phrases such as the "war on terror" or "Muslim extremists" and referring instead to "criminals".