Blair steps up global propaganda war on Iraq as Short urges caution

Tony Blair flies to Washington today to fix a deadline with President George Bush for Saddam Hussein to come clean on his weapons or face military action. At their meeting in the President's Camp David retreat tomorrow, the two leaders are expected to agree that the United Nations weapons inspectors should be given a few more weeks to investigate.

With the Bush administration's patience running out, Mr Blair is preparing to back military action on the basis that President Saddam has not co-operated with the inspectors. He will urge President Bush to seek a fresh UN Security Council mandate first.

Mr Blair was one of eight European leaders to sign a joint article in The Times and other European publications, demanding that UN Security Council resolutions on Iraqi disarmament must be fully enforced.

"The Security Council must maintain its credibility by ensuring full compliance with its resolutions," they said.

"We cannot allow a dictator to systematically violate those resolutions. If they are not complied with, the Security Council will lose its credibility and world peace will suffer as a result.

"We are confident that the Security Council will face up to its responsibilities."

The other signatories were Spain's Jose Maria Aznar, Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, Portugal's Jose Manuel Durdao Barroso, Hungary's Peter Medgyessy, Poland's Leszek Miller, Denmark's Anders Fogh Rasmussen and President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic.

The publication of the article will be seen as a calculated rebuff to French President Jacques Chirac and Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who have been leading the opposition to military action.

Paris and Berlin were already smarting after being dismissed last week as "old Europe" by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Yesterday Mr Blair stepped up his efforts to win over a sceptical public by claiming there were links between Iraq and al-Qa'ida. He told the Commons: "We do know of links between al-Qa'ida and Iraq; we cannot be sure of the exact extent of those links." But he admitted there was no specific connection between Iraq and the 11 September attacks.

Mr Blair's official spokes-man claimed Iraq was "sheltering" members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. He said: "They are there in areas where the Iraqi government must know they are there. Given the way the Iraqi government operates, al-Qa'ida would not be able to remain there unless the Iraqis wanted them to remain there."

Today Mr Blair will brief his Cabinet on the agenda for the Camp David talks, then fly to Madrid to meet Jose Maria Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister. Yesterday Mr Blair played host to Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, another key European ally.

Cabinet tensions surfaced when Clare Short, the Secretary of State for International Development, implicitly criticised President Bush and Mr Blair. She tried to halt a drift to war by saying: "We should deal with it in a way that minimises any risk of further suffering for the people of Iraq. We should refine what we are doing and not talk as though it's all-out war or not all-out war."

She said on BBC Radio 2, that "some military action" might be needed but shared the instincts of "the good old British people" that conflict should be avoided if possible. "I really love the way the country is troubled by the prospect of war," she said. "I am proud to live in a country that does not relish the prospect of war."

Ms Short also criticised Washington for not putting enough pressure on Israel to ensure progress in the Middle East peace process.