Blair refuses calls to launch military operations against Iraq

The British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday refused calls made by the opposition British Conservatives party leader Ian Smith to approve launching military acts against Iraq.

British sources said that Blair believes in the need to calm dawn the " hawks " of the American administration who demand the need of striking Iraq, foremost being the US vive President Dick Cheney and his advisor for the US national security Gondoleezza Rice and the deputy secretary of state Paul Woolfowiz.

The sources stressed that this stand by Blair was strengthened when the French President Jacque Chirac agreed with him to stand united in the face of the American hawks.