A watershed for the world

George Bush and Tony Blair have given the United Nations until this evening to reach consensus for military action on Iraq, saying they can wait no longer to force Saddam Hussein to surrender his weapons of mass destruction.

"Tomorrow is a moment of truth in the world," President Bush said yesterday at the end of an extraordinary summit in the Azores with Mr Blair and Jose Maria Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister.

The three leaders issued what amounted to a final challenge to France to agree an ultimatum to President Saddam by the end of today, or have the blamed pinned on it for a war going ahead without the sanction of a second UN resolution.

War now seems both inevitable and imminent. President Bush may address the American people as early as today, issuing a final warning to President Saddam and giving aid workers and others time to leave Iraq.

Speaking after their meeting at the Lajes Field US-Portuguese military air base on Terceira Island, President Bush said the three leaders would be "working the phones" in one final diplomatic push.

But there are strong signs that they will not even seek a vote on the draft second UN resolution unless France reverses its threat to veto it. "Tomorrow is the day that will decide whether or not diplomacy can work,'' the President added.

American and British officials do not believe a second resolution is strictly necessary to start a war.

"We are in the final stages," Mr Blair said, "because after 12 years of failing to disarm him [President Saddam], now is the time to decide." The Prime Minister said previous UN resolutions demanding Iraqi disarmament would lose their meaning if the diplomatic to-and-fro was allowed to carry on indefinitely. "We cannot have a situation where we go back for endless discussion," he added.

President Bush, asked whether he was saying that the process of diplomacy was about to close, replied: "That's what I'm saying."

The focus of the summit appeared to be less on avoiding war than on patching up the international rifts that have opened up within the Western alliance over Iraq.

There was some small hope that France could be persuaded to withdraw its threat to veto any new UN resolution containing an ultimatum for war. Jacques Chirac, the French President, and Dominique de Villepin, his Foreign Minister, made more emollient statements over the weekend, including an offer to consider a new 30-day disarmament deadline. But American and British officials were sceptical whether they could accept anything the French had to offer.

Asked in a television interview whether a foreign ministers' meeting would be useful, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, retorted: "For what?" He was equally negative about the prospects of President Saddam either disarming or relinquishing power. "It's hard to imagine," he said.

The chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, described the situation as "very threatening". He said he had speeded up the preparation of his report at the request of some Security Council members and it would be ready today ­ which angered US officials who were expecting it tomorrow. That would have been after the US deadline, when it would have received little attention.

In a sign of a small diplomatic advance, Mr Blair appeared to have persuaded the American President that the UN would be responsible for ensuring that Iraqi oil was used for the benefit of the Iraqi people themselves after the war. Several UN helicopters were on their way out of the country because their insurance was cancelled.

If the US and Britain are not satisfied with the French response, Mr Blair could call an emergency cabinet meeting as early as this evening to make the final preparations for war.

A senior official travelling with the Prime Minister said the argument with the French was no longer about "time lines". The issue was whether Paris was prepared to accept a resolution containing a clear ultimatum threatening force if President Saddam did not agree to disarm. The official said President Chirac had told Mr Blair as recently as Thursday that he would not accept such a resolution.

Seven cabinet ministers, including the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, took to the airwaves yesterday to try to head off a second Labour rebellion in the Commons. Jack Straw, Alan Milburn, Margaret Beckett, John Reid, Peter Hain and Tessa Jowell joined Mr Brown in calling for President Saddam to disarm. They reiterated that a military strike against Iraq would not be illegal under international law.