British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair warned today that unless the world dealt with the danger he said was posed by Iraq the authority of the United Nations would be ruined.
Mr Blair said the UN must be ready to tackle Iraqi President Saddam Hussein if he failed to meet demands to scrap weapons of mass destruction.
"If at this moment, having found the collective will to recognize the danger, we lose our collective will to deal with it, then we will destroy not the authority of America or Britain but of the United Nations itself," he said in a speech to his Labour Party's annual conference in Blackpool.
"Sometimes, and in particular when dealing with a dictator, the only chance of peace is a readiness for war," Mr Blair told delegates, many of whom have expressed deep unease at his strong backing for Washington's line on Iraq.
Mr Blair has backed Mr Bush in pressing for a draft Security Council resolution setting deadlines and tightening rules for UN searches for any Iraqi weapons. But they face opposition from key UN powers Russia, France and China.
Hawks in Mr Bush's administration have called for "regime change" in Iraq regardless of whether weapons inspectors return for the first time in four years. Mr Blair is treading a more careful line without completely ruling out an attack should the big UN powers fail to agree.
Addressing complaints from Labour left-wingers at his close ties with the Republican US president - and media caricatures of him as Mr Bush's "poodle" -Mr Blair denied Britain was slavishly following the United States.
"My vision of Britain is not as the 51st state of anywhere, but I believe in this alliance (with Washington) and I will fight long and hard to maintain it," he said.
An ICM poll for the Guardian newspaper showed public support for military action against Iraq has faded to 33 per cent from 37 a week ago.