Britain wants UN consent for striking Iraq

In its Friday's issue, the British daily the Independent said British prime minister "Tony Blair has privately reassured his Labour Party critics that Britain will not back US military action against Iraq unless it wins the backing of the United Nations Security Council."

The Independent said "Members of Labour's ruling national executive committee (NEC) said that Mr Blair assured them at their last meeting that he would seek UN backing before supporting military action." The date of this meeting was not specified.

It is known, that like Washington, London calls for the return back of UN inspectors to Iraq who left it in December 1998 on the wake of the US- British military strikes against Iraq.

By the end of April this year Blair said he owns "mines of information" on Iraq's possession of mass annihilation weapons and this was made in a statement Blair made with a Kuwaiti paper.