Jack Straw has blamed Britain's colonial past for many of today's most pressing global conflicts.

The foreign secretary told the New Statesman: "A lot of the problems that we are having to deal with now - I have to deal with now - are a consequence of our colonial past."

Straw goes on to say: "India -Pakistan - we made some quiet serious mistakes. We were complacent with what happened in Kashmir, the boundaries weren't published until two days after independence...Afghanistan - where we played less than a glorious role over a century and a half..."

He also claims that the British involvement in the birth of the Arab-Israeli dispute was "not entirely an honourable one".

The Conservatives accused him of undermining British foreign policy.