The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair has said that force may be necessary to disarm Iraqi President Saddam Hussein if it cannot be done peacefully, as he arrived for this evening's emergency EU summit.
"Everyone agrees Saddam is a threat. Everyone agrees he must be disarmed, otherwise he poses a real danger to his region and the world. And I think most people understand that if that cannot be done peacefully it has to be done by force," he told reporters.
"I think the most important thing at the moment is to send a signal of strength, not weakness, because that is the language Saddam will understand and that is also our best chance of avoiding conflict," he said.
Blair rebuffed a question about divisions between Britain's hardline stance in support of the US over Iraq and the positions of France and Germany, which are calling for more time for UN inspectors to do their work.
"It's important that we look at the points of unity," he said.
"The issue of timing is how much time we need in order to judge whether the inspectors are able to carry out their work in the sense of: is Saddam fully cooperating or not? That is what he's got to do.
"So the test on time is not for them to go back to where we were in the 1990s for 12 years, sitting in there trying to do their best but not actually discovering the weapons," said Blair, referring to previous UN inspection missions in Iraq.
"The best thing that we can do is to form a judgment on whether Saddam is cooperating or not. That's what we require the time to do," he added.