VATICAN: On the eve of his historic audience with Pope John Paul II in the Vatican this morning, British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair reaffirmed the need for the international community to make it clear to Saddam Hussein, via the United Nations Security Council, that "either you disarm peacefully or we will disarm you forcefully".
Mr Blair was speaking in Rome at a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi, where both leaders argued that a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis is still possible. Citing an ancient Roman diktat, Mr Berlusconi suggested that sometimes "you have to prepare for war, in order to ensure peace".
In contrast to his summit yesterday with Mr Berlusconi, where it was all too obvious that both leaders were in agreement on the Iraqi crisis, Mr Blair is due for one of the most difficult meetings of his political life when he has his first-ever Vatican audience with Pope John Paul II this morning.
The Pope and his senior Vatican advisers have been waging an aggressive diplomatic campaign aimed at avoiding war, an eventuality which the Pope describes as "a defeat for humanity". In the last fortnight, the Pope has met with German Foreign Minister Mr Joschka Fischer, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Mr Tariq Aziz and UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan, all within the ambit of that diplomatic initiative.
Asked what message he would take to the Pope this morning, an exhausted-looking Mr Blair replied: "I obviously know the Pope's views, they're very clear. But we don't want war, no one wants war. The reason we went to the United Nations six months ago was to avoid war. Yet if we leave Saddam in charge of Iraq with his weapons of mass destruction, where does that leave the people of Iraq? Saddam Hussein knows what he has to do, but the question is, does he have the will to do it?"
Later in answer to another question regarding the "morality" of war on Iraq, Mr Blair responded: "I don't claim to have a monopoly of wisdom on this or any other question, but my view is sincere.We've given him [Saddam\] every chance, 12 years.
"My overwhelming preference is to resolve this crisis through the United Nations. Saddam must understand: disarm peacefully or you will be disarmed forcefully. And if he thinks that the will of the international community has weakened, then he's mistaken and last Monday's joint statement by EU leaders is proof of that."
Mr Berlusconi further claimed that intelligence gathered by Italian secret services suggested that bin Laden's al-Qaeda network wanted to carry out an attack that would be much worse than the September 11th attacks on the US. Given that al-Qaeda could not obtain nuclear arms, argued Mr Berlusconi, such an attack could be carried out only with the sort of chemical and biological weapons contained in President Saddam's arsenal.
Mr Blair also claimed there was evidence of links between international terrorism and Baghdad. He did add, however, there was no proof of links between al-Qaeda and Iraq. "I don't have any doubt, however, that if al-Qaeda could get its hands on weapons of mass destruction, then it would use them."
Asked if he felt no misgivings about British opinion polls expressing a majority anti-war view, Mr Blair said: "We must take careful account of public opinion but those same opinion polls [that are strongly anti-war\] also show substantial support for military action if it comes on the back of a second UN Security Council resolution. We are reluctant to go to war, except as a last resort, that's our position."
On last weekend's worldwide peace rallies, Mr Berlusconi argued that public opinion was being systematically "disinformed". He said his estimates are that less than 10 million people demonstrated, rather than the 110 million figure quoted by international news sources such as CNN.