Are people really saying that if there's a breach of the UN resolution, then no action will follow? Tony Blair

He said he was convinced the UN Security Council would back military action against Iraq if it breached the UN resolution requiring it to give up weapons of mass destruction.

The UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, has said his team is getting "fairly good" co-operation from US intelligence but still needs "actionable evidence" of illegal Iraqi weapons.

Mr Blix told the BBC his inspectors would act on such specific information as soon as it was forthcoming.

Unilateral action

Mr Blair told reporters on Monday that if there was a breach in the UN resolution, "we would expect the United Nations to honour the undertakings that were given".

However, he said the US and Britain reserved the right to act if any Security Council member attempted to impose a "unilateral bloc" on military action by using its veto.

Baghdad denies it owns banned weapons, but the US is building up its forces in the Gulf to back the threat of military action unless Iraq disarms.

KEY DATES

16 Jan - Chief UN inspector Hans Blix briefs EU 19 Jan - Blix meets top Iraqi officials in Baghdad 27 Jan - First full report on inspections presented to UN 29 Jan - UN discusses report Mid-Feb - Estimated 150,000 US troops in Gulf 15 Feb - Anti-war protests across Europe

Mr Blair said he had "no doubt" that Saddam Hussein was attempting to rebuild his alleged nuclear, biological and chemical weapons arsenal.

But the Iraqi leader still had the opportunity to avoid war, the prime minister said.

"Even now, Saddam should take the peaceful route and disarm," Mr Blair told his monthly press conference. "If he does not, however, he will be disarmed by force."

UN weapons inspectors in Iraq are due to report to the UN Security Council on 27 January - a date seen as key by some within the US administration.

But Mr Blair said he did not want to place arbitrary timescales on the work of the inspectors.

Meanwhile, the US military has said that its planes have attacked an anti-ship missile launcher in southern Iraq because it posed a threat to Western naval shipping in the Gulf.

The US Central Command said precision weapons had been used to hit the launcher near the port of Basra. There are no reports of casualties.

Limited time

Mr Blix told the BBC that with the American mobilisation of troops in the region, the pressure on the inspection team was building.

One day, he said, the UN Security Council might tell the inspectors to move out in order for the military to disarm Iraq.

But the working assumption, he said, was for the team to continue under their mandate.

It seems to me that either Saddam will turn over these weapons at the very last minute or there will be military action Richard Perle, US Defence Department policy board chairman

Mr Blix also warned that he may never be able to say if Iraq had been fully disarmed, and there would always be what he called a residue of uncertainty about its remaining weapons.

"You will not get a 100% assurance... but you can get very far," he said.

"Is this containment sufficient, or do [ the politicians] want to go further at a much, much higher cost?"

More time needed

Earlier Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which also has expert monitors in Iraq, called for Baghdad to co-operate more actively with the inspectors.