Ms Short is a well-known rebel

Ms Short attended the first Cabinet meeting since her outburst on Sunday evening, and shows no sign of being dismissed despite dubbing Tony Blair's approach to Iraq "reckless".

The minister told the BBC her colleagues had been civil and had engaged in constructive discussion about the continuing diplomacy at the UN, the general situation in the Middle East, and the prospects for reconstruction of Iraq.

Ms Short admitted she might have irritated other ministers, but said they understood why she had made a stand.

"It was fine. I know those people very well and they know me. I might have irritated them

"[But] they know I am concerned about the situation - I am not playing games.

"It wasn't a bad atmosphere at all."

Blair occupied

Many commentators have said it is almost without precedent for a minister to make comments like those made by Ms Short and remain in post.

But Mr Blair is totally occupied with the current diplomacy round and war preparations and does not want to make a martyr of Ms Short or further split the party, it has been speculated.

Ms Short indicated she had no regrets about making her comments when she did.

"I said what I said because I was fearful that we were just going to end up in conflict without everything being properly attended to.

"I did it because I thought it was necessary to draw attention to these things."

Ms Short said any attack on Iraq risked a disaster with 60% of the population dependent on the oil-for-food programme.

"If there's any conflict and that's disrupted this is 19 million people.

"Things have got to move very fast or you really would have a humanitarian disaster."