Blair has 'huge concerns' over attack on Iraq

King Abdullah of Jordan warned President George Bush yesterday that even Tony Blair, the leader of the country considered most likely to join a US military attack against Saddam Hussein, has "tremendous concerns" about the consequences of any such campaign to unseat the Iraqi leader.

At a meeting with the US president in Washington, which followed talks in Europe with Mr Blair and President Jacques Chirac of France, King Abdullah urged Mr Bush to focus first on settling the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and achieving his proclaimed goal of a peace deal within three years. "We have a light at the end of the tunnel, but we have no tunnel," he said.

The King's revelation that Mr Blair shares the growing international unease about Washington's headlong rush to war with Iraq, provides a rare glimpse into his private concerns, in contrast to the supportive public statements for the US position.

In a remarkably outspoken interview with The Washington Post, the King pulled no punches about the alarm felt abroad at the prospect of an attack. "In all the years I've been in the international community, everyone is saying this is a bad idea.If it seems America wants to hit Baghdad, that is not what the Jordanians think, or the British, the French, the Russians, the Chinese or anyone else," he said.

Mr Blair "has tremendous concerns about how this would unravel," he added. King Abdullah's remarks are the first public signal that the Prime Minister is, behind the scenes, counselling caution on plans for an assault on Iraq.

They underline The Independent's report earlier this week that Downing Street has received advice from the Government's own lawyers that an invasion would be illegal without a fresh UN mandate.

Mr Blair's spokeswoman refused to deny the accuracy of King Abdullah's account of his meeting with the Prime Minister on Monday. "They had a constructive and friendly meeting. The Prime Minister believes that weapons of mass destruction is an issue which has to be addressed. But no decisions have been taken," she said.

King Abdullah was dismissive of assertions by senior US officials that a swift victory would lead to the emergence of a democratic regime in Baghdad and improve the climate for a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

In an ideal world, that might be so. But "life being as it is, and so uncertain, very few people are convinced that" that would happen so easily, he said. Our concern is exactly the opposite, that a miscalculation in Iraq would throw the whole region into turmoil, he added.

The King's warnings come amid a furious debate in Washington, pitting a cautious military and diplomatic establishment against top civilian officials, led by Vice-President Dick Cheney and the Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who favour a bold surprise strike to get rid of Saddam once and for all.

Mr Bush himself, who will be given a full briefing soon by Mr Rumsfeld on preparations on Iraq, shows no signs of being swayed; Washington's policy was regime change, he told reporters in the Oval Office, flanked by the King. "We are looking at all the options, all the tools, and I haven't changed my mind." But in the country the debate is finally being joined. For a second consecutive day, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings – billed as a "national dialogue" by its chairman Joseph Biden of Delaware – on Iraq, this time concentrating on the prime worry of King Abdullah: what would happen once President Saddam had been toppled.

Economic concerns are also surfacing, amid warnings that the US is unlikely to receive any financial help, in contrast to the 1991 Gulf war