British Prime Minister Tony Blair has quelled a Cabinet revolt over Iraq by promising his ministers he would pursue fully a United Nations solution to the crisis before resorting to military action.
At the Cabinet's first meeting for two months yesterday, the Prime Minister stressed his priority was to securethe widest possible support for a new UN resolution, due to be published tomorrow, allowing an "intrusive" regime of weapons inspections in Iraq.
But Mr Blair told his ministers that tough action must be taken against Saddam Hussein.
He said: "The truth is the policy of containment has not worked. He [President Saddam] has been able to make progress in his weapons of mass destruction programme and has to be stopped."
Several cabinet ministers stressed the need to give the Middle East peace process a higher profile in order to allay fears in the Arab world -- a point accepted by Mr Blair.
The Cabinet's debate on Iraq, due to last an hour, lasted for more than an hour and a half. Downing Street described it as "a serious and hard-headed discussion".
Official sources insisted that no minister spoke out against military action if the UN process failed to resolve the crisis.
Clare Short, the Secretary of State for International Development, who publicly opposed a "second Gulf War" on Sunday, said: "We had a good discussion. We all agreed."
Although Mr Blair's allies are confident of avoiding resignations over Iraq, one minister said: "We have not reached crunch time - yet."
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said after the meeting that it would be "far better" for the Iraq crisis to be resolved peacefully, but he warned that military action might be needed.
Mr Blair outlined to his ministers the contents of the 50-page dossier on the threat from Iraq, to be published tonight (NZT), which he said showed that the "real and serious problem" of Iraq's weapons programme had grown worse in since 1998.
Mr Blair will stress his commitment to the "UN route" in an attempt to defuse a Labour rebellion in today's emergency debate on Iraq in the Commons.
However, several Labour MPs warned that remarks by President George Bush showed he was determined to declare war. Mr Bush said: "If the UN will not deal with Saddam Hussein, the US and our friends will."
