Don't start a war in my name, mother of al-Qa'ida victim tells Blair

A woman whose son was killed in the World Trade Centre disaster in New York warned Tony Blair last night that military strikes on Iraq would backfire by making Saddam Hussein more of a danger to world peace.

Joy Bennett, a 58-year-old psychotherapist whose son, Oliver, died, was among six members of the public who questioned the Prime Minister on ITN News on the prospect of war. She told him: "I don't want anyone to die and I certainly don't want anybody to go through, any mother to go through, or anybody, or a mother in my case, to go through what I've gone through in the past 18 months."

Mr Blair told her: "I do not want to go to war. Any Prime Minister that ends up taking the decision to send troops into war knows two things. First of all, those troops' lives are at risk. Second, innocent people die in wars as well as guilty people." But he insisted that President Saddam, with his stockpile of chemical, biological, and "potentially nuclear weapons" was a threat.

Mrs Bennett, from Amersham, Buckinghamshire, said: "How many other people are threats around the world? I mean, why now, why Saddam Hussein? Because we know him and we know he's there and he is a danger. I would have thought that that was safer actually, because you can watch, you can use intelligence. There must be so many other terrorists."

The Prime Minister said the 11 September terrorists would have had "no compunction" about using weapons of mass destruction if they could have obtained them. He added: "The reason why the focus has come round Saddam, is that the UN has taken a position on him. He is the one person that has actually used these weapons, both against his own people and against other countries.

"If we don't take a stand now and say to him, 'Look you've got to disarm', then when we go to these other countries or groups, will they treat us seriously?"

Terry Shar, a Muslim from Bedford, warned that an attack on Iraq, which had been contained for 12 years, would incite more terrorist attacks. He added: "There have been many links to terrorist groups, but none of them have been proven. There has been no proof, no evidence. Where is the proof or evidence the population demands before any action is taken?"

Mr Blair sidestepped a challenge on what action he would take if military action was vetoed by the UN Security Council. But he repeated that if Iraq refused to comply with UN demands on co-operating with weapons inspectors "then our purpose would be to remove the regime that is refusing to co- operate with the inspectors".