Blair warns troops of 'difficult times ahead' in campaign

Tony Blair sought to reassure Britain's front-line troops last night that the coalition campaign to oust Saddam Hussein was on track, despite several disastrous accidents.

"These things are never easy. There will be some difficult times ahead but it is going to plan despite the tragedies that there were," he said in an interview with the British Forces Broadcasting Service.

Mr Blair recorded the interview after chairing a meeting of his War Cabinet.

He told the 45,000 UK troops in the Gulf that displaying American prisoners of war on television was further proof that President Saddam had to be removed. "Parading people in that way is contrary to the Geneva Convention, contrary to all the proper rules of conflict. He has mined the oil wealth of the country. He tortures and murders people at will in Iraq.

"I hope people have some idea of how dangerous it therefore is to leave someone like that in charge with chemical and biological and potentially nuclear weapon capability."

The dangers faced by British soldiers were underlined by a grim forecast from Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, of the perils ahead as Western forces advanced towards the Iraqi capital.

He refused to speculate on reports that they could arrive by tomorrow, but added: "We don't know what kind of tripwires might be tripped once we get closer to Baghdad. Saddam Hussein might then decide to use chemical or biological weapons."

Robin Cook, who resigned from the Cabinet last week, put himself at the head of Labour's internal opposition to Tony Blair yesterday.

Although Mr Cook insisted he did not intend to become a rallying point for the Prime Minister's opponents, he said: "I'm not going to go away. I'm a Commons man ... and I hope to play a part as a senior figure in the Commons. There is a lot of issues that I would wish to address there."

With Mr Blair facing dissent on domestic issues such as student funding and foundation hospitals, as well as Iraq, MPs will see his comments as a bid for the leadership of the soft-left in the Commons.

Mr Cook told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost yesterday that he was worried by the "very dangerous" doctrine of pre-emptive military strikes adopted by the US as it could be taken up by other countries in other circumstances.

And he warned that the Arab world would have little patience with the West if the Middle East peace process remained deadlocked.

Labour opponents of the war will tomorrow attempt to embarrass Mr Blair and Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, by tabling an emergency resolution condemning the war at a meeting of the party's ruling National Executive Committee. It will argue that the military action breaches the United Nations charter and demand an immediate return to UN rules.

In an interview with The Independent today, Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, says Mr Blair's stance has done "colossal" damage to Britain's relations with Europe. He also says that the prospect of a referendum on membership of the European single currency has been pushed "down the track" by the anti-French sentiment stoked by the Government.