British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair told MPs yesterday he and President Bush were agreed on the necessity of a UN resolution providing for the post-Saddam government of Iraq.
Answering Commons questions before flying to Washington for a war summit with the President, Mr Blair also insisted that scepticism about American enthusiasm for United Nations involvement in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq was unjustified.
Confirming "yes" he considered a UN resolution necessary, Mr Blair said it was important that this was achieved and that the British and American administrations were agreed on that.
Challenged by Conservative leader Mr Iain Duncan Smith to say if he had an alternative should a UN resolution not be forthcoming, Mr Blair replied that a post-conflict Iraqi administration clearly required UN support and that that was the position set out by himself and President Bush at the conclusion of the Azores summit before the war started.
The Prime Minister's comments came just minutes after the International Development Secretary, Ms Clare Short, had described a UN mandate for the future government of Iraq as "an absolute legal requirement". Speaking during her own departmental question time, Ms Short said the allied forces would not have the authority "to reorganise the institutions or bring in a new government" following the anticipated fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.
At the same time Mr Blair asserted a prior and over-arching British and American interest in the interim administration of Iraq until such times as peace could be secured.
"American and British soldiers have put their lives on the line, in some cases given their lives, for the liberation of Iraq," he said. "There is no difference on the issue of principle (about a UN resolution) but there will have to be discussion about how we run the civil administration in a way that protects our troops and ensures they did not give their lives in vain." Mr Blair said that of necessity the UN involvement would be a two-stage process. The first priority would be to get the oil-for-food programme up and running again, with the "massive amount of detail" concerning wider reconstruction and the future government of Iraq still to be worked through.
And on his flight to Washington Mr Blair then told reporters that the growing debate about the future role of the UN was itself "premature". He told reporters travelling with him on his chartered British Airways 777 jet it was too early to say whether the UN would run the country if and when Saddam was ousted from power. "The point is that we are in there in a military situation. This is why this argument about the UN is premature," he said. "We are not at the point of discussing the details of this. We don't know what the situation is going to be when you get to the post-conflict situation."
He continued: "And it's important that whatever we do has the maximum protection for our soldiers who are still going to be there. We set out the basic principles, that's not going to change, but there is a massive amount of detail to be sorted out."
Mr Blair said his meeting with Mr Bush would be an opportunity to review the progress of the allied campaign and that their talks would extend to other issues, including the rift between some parts of Europe and America and relations between the West and the Arab world.
However, he also acted to rebut some speculative press reports that his desire for "face time" with the American President reflected growing Labour Party anxiety about America's plans for the interim and subsequent administration of Iraq. "This is not a meeting that has been quickly put together in the last couple of days," he insisted.
"Don't expect a whole lot of specifics to emerge from this. This is also an opportunity to discuss the various aspects of the international situation."