The 2003 Missile Crisis

They carry a payload of 200kg and have a range of 183 kilometres. What Saddam does with his al-Samoud missiles today will make the difference between the possibility of peace and the certainty of war

Today is the day for action. If Saddam Hussein has even the slimmest chance of avoiding war he must start dismantling his outlawed al-Samoud missiles, seen by many as the litmus test of whether Iraq is serious about disarming.

The Iraqi leader indicated yesterday that he will be dispatching his engineers to blow up, crush or cut into pieces the missiles whose range in some tests has exceeded by more than 30 kms the 150km (93-mile) limit imposed by the United Nations. The UN's chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said he considered the willingness to dismantle the missiles "a very significant piece of a real disarmament".

But even as France and Russia applauded Mr Blix's assessment, Britain and America denounced President Saddam's offer as nothing more than another example of his attempt to fool the international community.

Tony Blair was said to be angry with Mr Blix's latest public remarks, which sharply contrast with his latest report to the UN Security Council, when he said that demands for President Hussein to disarm have brought only "limited results". British ministers are worried that Mr Blix's comments will confuse the public and undermine their attempts to win support for a new UN Security Council resolution.

Speaking at the Welsh Labour conference, the Prime Minister said: "He must stop playing and decide to disarm. A genuine change of heart and mind." He insisted he was "passionately" committed to resolving the crisis through the UN. "All we ask now is that the UN means what it said and does what it meant," he said.

Earlier, in Madrid, where he met the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, Mr Blair referred to President Saddam's interview with the US broadcaster Dan Rather earlier this week in which the Iraqi leader suggested he might not destroy the missiles.

"The moment I heard ... that Saddam Hussein was saying he would not destroy the missiles was the moment that I knew later in the week that he would announce – just before Dr Blix reported – that he would indeed destroy these missiles," Mr Blair said. "He never makes any concessions at all other than with the threat of force hanging over him."

There is a teasing reluctance to President Saddam's destruction of the estimated 100 to 120 al-Samoud missiles, the dismantling of which Mr Blix ordered must start today. As in previous concessions proffered by the Iraqi leader, this offer has come bit by bit. Even as Iraqi officials wrote to Mr Blix, offering "in principle" to disarm, they also requested a series of technical meetings to discuss how to go about dismantling the missiles, which are scheduled to take place this morning.

"The decision to destroy [the missiles] was unjust and did not take into consideration the scientific facts regarding the issue," President Saddam's senior scientific adviser, Lieutenant General Amer al-Saadi, wrote to Mr Blix. "The timing of this request seems to us to be one with political aims."

France – perhaps the most vocal opponent within the Security Council to the US and British "second resolution" that would pave the way for war – said Iraq's offer was a mark of progress and evidence that weapons inspections were working.

The French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, said there was no reason to cut short the peaceful disarmament of Iraq. "A second resolution would be the first step to war. That's not what we want and that's not what is needed. We still can work for peace," he said, pointing out that Russia – which, like France, also holds a veto at the Security Council – had similarly rejected the resolution.

The Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, said Russia would its right of veto if it was "necessary in the interests of international stability".