Blair makes plea for party unity as war protests loom

Tony Blair pleaded with the Labour Party yesterday not to undermine his efforts to dismantle Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

At a meeting of Labour's national executive committee (NEC) as the party conference opened in Blackpool, the Prime Minister warned that the United States was more likely to go it alone on military action if Britain and other countries did not make every effort to resolve the crisis through the United Nations. He said the eyes of many of the world's capitals, including Baghdad, would be on the conference this week.

In effect, Mr Blair was asking his party to trust him to deal with Iraq by pursuing the UN route. But many Labour activists are worried that the Prime Minister will deploy British forces alongside the Americans if the UN plan fails.

Mr Blair's plea for party unity was supported by the NEC, which overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by the left-winger Mark Seddon for Labour to oppose any military action not "explicitly endorsed" by the UN. Instead, the NEC approved a policy statement, to be put before the conference this afternoon, which backed the Government's policy.

It said: "We understand the concerns within the party and the rest of the country about the possibility of military action, which should only ever be used as a last resort. But the principles of international law can only be credible if they are enforced and failure to do so can only undermine the authority of the UN itself."

Constituency parties are expected to put forward a rival, anti-war motion in today's debate but the Labour leadership hopes the move will be defeated with the help of the trade unions. It will argue that Mr Blair can "live with" demands for the UN to be the way to avoid a war.

Mr Seddon warned last night that Labour's unity around the "UN route" could evaporate if the US decided to go it alone. "There is deep suspicion of Bush's motives. The big question is whether the Prime Minister is going to take us into a war if the UN fails," he said.

On the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme yesterday, Mr Blair talked up the UN's pivotal role in an attempt to allay his party's fears. But he refused to rule out a war if the UN route was blocked. He said: "We must make it absolutely clear that Saddam and the Iraqi regime have one choice. They either agree to disarm themselves of these weapons they should never have had in the first place or alternatively action will follow."

He added that disarmament "will happen either through the UN inspections route or it will happen otherwise. But it will happen ... We are going down the UN route but the UN route has to be the way of dealing with it, not avoiding it."

He believed the US and Britain would secure a new UN resolution despite doubts expressed by Russia, China and France. He said regime change in Iraq would be "excellent" but stressed that his goal was disarmament.