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Iraq is in the middle of a civil war, the country's former prime minister Ayad Allawi said Sunday.

He said there was no other way to describe the increasing violence across the country even as Western officials insist that it is not the case.

"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more," Allawi told the BBC. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

Allawi heads the Iraqi National List, a secular alliance of Shi'ite and Sunni politicians.

British Defence Secretary John Reid said during a visit to Iraq on Saturday that although there was "a greater degree of sectarian violence," he did not believe civil war was imminent.

"I don't think any of us would deny that that is a problem, but not a problem to the degree that we think civil war is imminent or inevitable," he said on the second day of a three-day visit to Iraq.

"The most urgent need at the moment is the speedy formation of a government of national unity," he said.

Allawi said the violence in the country was moving towards "the point of no return" and that Iraq is "in a terrible civil conflict."

He warned that European nations and the United States would not be immune from the conflict, saying that not only will Iraq "fall apart," but that "sectarianism will spread throughout the region, and even Europe and the United States would not be spared all the violence that may occur as a result of sectarian problems in this region."

After the bombing of the Shia shrine at Samarra on February 22, there was an increase in civil violence, leading observers to say that the country was on the brink of civil war, an assertion that has been rejected by lawmakers.

Allawi said that playing down the current problems in Iraq would be a mistake, and told the BBC that he had warned against creating a power vacuum and the prevalence of militias.

His warning came as protests took place around the world to mark the third anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.

(China Daily March 20, 2006)