Families fighting for a public inquiry into non-combat deaths took their message to Parliament today.

Relatives and supporters of victims marched to Westminster holding banners and photos of their loved ones.

Geoff Gray, whose 17-year-old son Private Geoff Gray died at the Deepcut army barracks of gunshot wounds in 2001, said non-combat deaths needed to be properly investigated.

Mr Gray said: ''The purpose is to highlight the fact this is not just a Deepcut problem. It's a British Army problem in that young soldiers' deaths are not being investigated in the way they should be.

''We will tell Tony Blair we need a public inquiry.

''Those soldiers were trying to serve their country. Now it's time for the Government to serve them, to find out why they died.''

In March, Surrey Police published a 15-month investigation into the deaths of four soldiers, all privates, who died from gunshot wounds at Deepcut.

Geoff Gray, 17, from Seaham, Durham; Sean Benton, 20, from Hastings, East Sussex; James Collinson, 17, from Perth and Cheryl James, 18, from Llangollen, North Wales, died at the camp between 1995 and 2002.

The families refuse to believe the official explanation that they killed themselves.

Families gathered at Westminster today said the problem was much bigger than Deepcut.

Claudia Beckley-Lines said her 22-year-old son Private William Beckley-Lines died whilst training in September 1998.

After an investigation, the army said the soldier died of exhaustion while completing a two mile run.

Mrs Beckley-Lines said her son had told her of bullying at the Catterick Garrison.

Also among the group was Sian Jones whose brother Trooper Aled Jones, 18, died of a single gunshot wound in Bosnia in July 1996. Ms Jones said families deserved to know the real reason why their loved ones were dead.

She said: ''If they would just give us the truth, then we would be happy. We deserve to know what happened.''

June Sharples said she lost her son, Private Allan Sharples, 20, while at Catterick Garrison in April 2000. Mrs Sharples said she was angered by the way her son's death was treated and felt it had been ''shoved under the carpet''.

The group also walked to Downing Street where they handed out postcards calling for a public inquiry.

Supporters were encouraged to sign the postcards and post them to Prime Minister Tony Blair.