Key quotes from Tuesday's Commons debate on Iraq, broadcast in full on BBC Parliament.

Prime Minister Tony Blair made an hour-long appeal to MPs.

He told the Commons: 'The only persuasive power to which Saddam responds is 250,000 allied troops on his doorstep.'

'The choice was not action now or postponement of action. The choice was action now or no action at all.'

'Back away from this confrontation now and future conflicts will be infinitely worse and more devastating in their effects.'

Iain Duncan Smith, Leader of the Opposition, backed the Government on war with Iraq.

He told MPs that Saddam has 'the means, mentality and motive' to threaten Britain's national security.

'Britain is as much a prime target as anybody else living today in this world,' said Mr Duncan Smith.

Labour rebel Peter Kilfoyle, moving the amendment saying the case for war had not been made, told MPs that action would be 'illegal, immoral and illogical'.

Charles Kennedy, Liberal Democrat leader, said: 'We do not believe that there is a case for war that has been established in the absence of a second resolution.'

But he told the Commons that when an exchange of fire commenced his party would give 'full moral support to the British forces'.

Labour MP John Denham, who has resigned as a Home Office Minister over the war, made a speech which was highly critical of the USA.

He told the Commons: 'Our Prime Minister has been ill-served by those he sought to influence' and said of the case for war: 'If I believed it would work I could swallow my qualms... but I don't.'

Former Conservative leader William Hague said Britain should take action against Saddam 'because it is the national interest'.

He said: 'Our alliance with the United States is a fundamental attribute of the foreign policy of this nation when it is correctly conducted.'

Bruce George, Labour Chairman of the Defence Committee, backed the Prime Minister's strategy, saying: 'Saddam will duck and dive and do anything to thwart the United Nations.'

For the Liberal Democrats, Malcolm Bruce accused the US of using tactics of 'economic bullying and political threats' and said it should show respect for other democratic countries which disagreed with its policies.

Alex Salmond of the SNP said despite the huge international sympathy for the US after 11 September, the 'coalition of the willing' for war against Iraq was now 'very narrowly-based indeed'.

The senior Conservative backbencher Sir George Young said: 'We are witnessing the most spectacular failure of diplomacy in my political lifetime.'

But he said whatever the doubts about the diplomatic process, British troops deserved support and he would be backing the Government.

John Randall resigned as a Conservative whip in order to support the rebel amendment.

He said he hoped that his fears about the consequences of war would be proved wrong.

The Labour Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Donald Anderson, said: 'We cannot now easily turn back without undermining our own credibility and that of the United Nations.'

He applauded the Prime Minister for going 'the extra mile' for diplomacy, and said the blame for the diplomatic failure lay with the French government.

'France has played into the hands of Saddam Hussein... and dealt a mortal blow to any hopes of a peaceful, negotiated outcome,' he told the Commons.