LONDON, Aug 29: There are signs that Britain is working on changing its Iraq policy to prevent a US attack on that country. Under the new policy, Britain will press for setting a deadline for Iraq to re-admit UN weapons inspectors.

This shift resulted from a strong opposition within UK and Europe to any military action to topple President Saddam Hussein.

The idea of setting the deadline was earlier put forward by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee and now the government has expressed readiness and made an announcement here on Thursday.

The British ministers said that they were prepared to consider imposing a deadline for the Saddam Hussein to comply with UN Security Council resolutions on weapons inspections.

The official statement issued here said: “Existing UN resolutions require immediate Iraqi compliance, including on weapons inspections. The government will nonetheless be giving further consideration to this recommendation. The government’s policy is to secure full implementation of the Security Council resolutions relating to Iraq”.

Tony Blair is facing strong opposition from his own Labour party MPs who are against any pre-emptive strike against Iraq without a UN mandate.

The recent speech by US Vice President Dick Cheney calling for pre-emptive action against Iraq has put the British prime minister in an even more difficult situation to clearly state that Britain would not support any such action.

The tone of the British media very clearly shows that the mood in Britain is quite different this time. A number of polls on the subject suggest that the majority of Britons believe that the world would be a safer place without Saddam Hussein, but oppose any pre-emptive military action against Iraq.

A new opinion poll published here on Wednesday showed that 52 per cent of Labour supporters believed Britain must not support any military action.

About 1,000 people from across the United Kingdom took part in the poll.

The Labour party sources say the pressure on Blair is huge and opposition to a military attack on Iraq will soon burst fully into open revolt, in party meetings planned for the next two weeks.