March 7, 2003	Friday	Muharram 3, 1424

LONDON, March 6: British Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested on Thursday he would be prepared to wage war on Iraq even if a number of United Nations powers vetoed a new resolution authorising military action.

Until now, Blair has said he reserved the right to go to war without UN authorisation in case a singular “unreasonable veto” was wielded. But in a debate on music television channel MTV he hardened that proviso to include multiple vetoes.

“If there was a veto applied by one of the countries with a veto or by countries that I thought were applying the veto unreasonably then in those circumstances I would,” Blair said when asked if he would go to war without a fresh UN mandate.

“But we are fighting very hard to get a second resolution through and...I still believe we will get that second resolution. I don’t want to go outside of the UN.”

Diplomats at the UN said late on Wednesday Britain had proposed allowing Iraq more time to comply with disarmament demands following the adoption of a new US-Spanish- British resolution authorising war.

Blair would not be drawn on those negotiations but a Foreign Office spokesman said: “We have always been clear we have been open to discussing the wording of the resolution we tabled.”

China became the latest big power to oppose moves to war, declaring on Thursday it backed a joint statement by France, Russia and Germany that they would block a resolution giving the go-ahead for attack.

Nine votes are needed to pass the resolution in the 15-member council and no veto cast by permanent members. The United States and Britain want a vote next week.

Blair will face mass opposition at home if he follows the United States into action without UN authority. An MTV poll of 80,000 viewers worldwide showed 83 percent would not support an attack without UN say-so.

Britain’s premier made his clearest statement yet that if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein fled the country war could be avoided.

“I would be prepared to accept a situation where Saddam and his immediate entourage went into exile,” Blair said.

But he added that with hundreds of thousands of troops now massed in the Gulf, time for Saddam to disarm fully or leave was running very short. “If we don’t act now, we can’t keep those people down there forever,” he said.

The MTV programme will be televised on Friday.

OIL ISSUE: The prime minister, grilled for an hour, also offered a solution to prove that oil was not the real motive behind the United States’ and Britain’s preparations for war.

After any conflict, he said, Iraq’s oil reserves should be put firmly under UN control out of reach of Britain and the United States.

“We should make sure that in any post-conflict Iraq there is a proper UN mandate...and that oil goes into a trust fund and we don’t touch it, the Americans don’t touch it without UN authority,” he said. “It is nothing to do with oil.”

Turning to anti-war powers France and Russia, he noted that they had “outstanding debts and contracts” with Iraq but stopped short of suggesting that was their motive for defying London’s and Washington’s wish to confront Saddam.

“This is where I put my diplomatic hat on,” he said. “I am not saying that is the reason they are taking the position they are taking.”—Reuters