LONDON, Nov 9: British ministers and government officials have advised the United States against attacking Iraq, warning that such action would intensify conflicts in the region, The Independent newspaper said on Friday, quoting senior defence and diplomats.

The warning came as The Times reported that Prime Minister Tony Blair faced increasing pressure from his own Labour Party and trade unions not to back any US strike.

According to The Independent, British ministers and government officials have warned Washington that launching a war to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would “contaminate” crises in Afghanistan, Israel and Kashmir.

“These are issues the Americans appear not to have considered,” one official was quoted as saying.

Officials added that the United States had countered British worries by maintaining that existing conflicts in the region can be “containerized” and that it would be impractical to wait for every situation to be resolved before launching an attack on Iraq.

US President George W. Bush is expected to call on London’s help in any military campaign to topple Saddam.

British ministers and government officials also have serious reservations about Bush’s call for “regime change” in Baghdad because they say no alternative setup has been identified, according to The Independent.

They fear that Britain could be left to lead a huge stabilization force for “up to five years” in a post-war Iraq.

While they share the US suspicion that Saddam has acquired weapons of mass destruction, British ministers have seen no evidence that he can deliver them in any meaningful way against the West, according to the broadsheet.

Their concerns came as a senior Pentagon adviser insisted that Bush would not hesitate to act alone.

Richard Perle, head of the Pentagon’s defence policy board, added, however, that he believed Blair would win over the doubters in Britain and back a US-led war.

“I have no doubt he (Bush) would act alone if necessary. But he will not be alone when the time comes,” Perle wrote in Friday’s edition of The Daily Telegraph.

“Neither the (US) president nor the British prime minister will be deflected by Saddam’s diplomatic charm offensive, the feckless moralizing of ‘’peace’ lobbies or the unsolicited advice of retired generals,” Perle added.

Although Blair has stated that London has taken no decisions on military action, he has repeatedly stressed that the threat posed by Saddam must be addressed.

The Times said that his Labour Party and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) are likely to vote against any strike at their annual conferences next month.

“I think there is a high probability of a debate and a vote (at the TUC conference) condemning war against Iraq,” the paper quoted an unnamed senior TUC source as saying.

“If that happens, the unions will want to take it forward to the (Labour) party conference and things could get very interesting indeed,” the source added.

The Daily Mirror quoted a Labour Party insider as saying that Blair’s siding with Bush was the single biggest reason why donations to the party were down a staggering 88 per cent on the same period last year.—Reuters