David Blunkett has called for greater global co-operation in the fight against terrorism.

Speaking in New York on Wednesday, the home secretary urged "co-operation, not competition" and said that groups like al Qaeda now influenced the international agenda of countries like the US and UK.

"In the past, nations consciously chose to engage or disengage in international events. Isolation or collaboration was a matter of conscious political decision," he said.

"Today others have chosen and will choose whether we engage or disengage, because terrorists and terrorist acts cannot be escaped by any of us. They have engaged with us and therefore there is a necessity for new forms of engagement by us, which cross national boundaries."

Business, travel and communications links have brought countries closer together, which Blunkett argued was one of the reasons why Britain and the US were now involved in issues such as Iraq.

"Today our environments, our economies and our peoples are so interconnected on a wide range of issues that we cannot disengage.

"If we accept that we are now inter-related one with another, whether we like it or not, we will understand why the United Kingdom and the United States stand shoulder to shoulder."

Blunkett argued that the new world order that had followed the end of the Cold War required "humanity to share the task of providing international order and security".

The home secretary said that international aims of building civil society across the world was "not an act of distant diplomacy" but should encompass the idea of thinking global and acting local.

"The development of civil society is fundamentally linked to the development of freedom at a local level, through to an international level.

"That is why I believe that not only do we need greater joint working, but the types of joint working that people around the world will recognise, accept and trust. Achieving this is our responsibility as political leaders," he said.

Britain's central concern for third world countries and rogue states was how to create civil and political processes for good governance, he said.

Blunkett's speech set out Britain's strategy to be what the prime minister has called "a force for good".

And resolving the Iraq issue would have a domino effect in helping to tackle other international problems.

"How we establish democratic governance in Iraq will be both a pre-requisite to progress in the Middle East and a symbol of a better world of tomorrow," he said.

"We can carry forward the 'road map' to secure long term security for Israel with secure borders, but also the creation of a stable, sustainable Palestinian state."