Britain discussed supporting the United States to bring about a change of government in Iraq eight months before the March 2003 invasion, Tony Blair said today.
But the prime minister, facing an election on Thursday in which the divisive war could cost him votes, denied suggestions his government took an early decision to topple Saddam Hussein.
His comments came in response to a leaked memo in a newspaper that said Mr Blair and US President George W. Bush were determined to oust Iraq's former leader as early as July 2002.
"I actually talked about regime change if it wasn't possible to get him (Saddam) to comply with international law," Mr Blair said in a phone-in on British commercial radio stations.
Mr Blair confirmed he discussed removing Saddam in a July 2002 top-level government meeting after the Sunday Timesprinted what it said were secret minutes of that meeting.
"Of course all the time what you are thinking is what happens if we can't do this in a peaceful way," Mr Blair told BBC Television, when asked about the contents of the leaked memo.
"The idea we'd decided definitively for military action at that stage is wrong and disproved by the fact that several months later we went back to the United Nations to get a final resolution.
"If the UN resolution had been adhered to by Saddam then that would have been an end to it," he added.
The leaked document gave fresh ammunition to Mr Blair's political opponents who accuse him of lying to the public and parliament over Iraq and of striking a pact with Mr Bush to launch an invasion well before seeking UN backing.
The prime minister built his case for war on the basis Iraq's banned weapons were a threat and has said "regime chance" was never his aim.
Mr Blair's opponents seized on the memo to support their attacks on his integrity but opinion polls show Mr Blair's Labour party is likely to win a third term on Thursday, although its huge parliamentary majority is expected to shrink.