Tony Blair has said that going to war with Argentina over the Falklands was "the right thing to do" and praised Margaret Thatcher's "political courage".
Mr Blair's comments come 10 days ahead of the 25th anniversary of Argentina's invasion of the islands on April 2nd, 1982.
Baroness Thatcher will mark the event today by meeting members of an air crew she sent to bomb Port Stanley airfield during the war.
In an interview for the 10 Downing Street website, Mr Blair said he was convinced Britain was right to respond to the Argentinian invasion with force.
"I have got no doubt it was the right thing to do . . . for reasons not simply to do with British sovereignty, but also because I think there was a principle at stake, which is that . . . a land shouldn't be annexed in that way, and people shouldn't be put under a different rule in that way," said Mr Blair.
"When you look back on it, and you talk to the people who were there at the time . . . I think it took a lot of political courage actually to do that."
Mr Blair pointed out that the 266 British personnel who died in the Falklands were more than those who have so far died in Iraq or Afghanistan.