Blair confronts the Pope on morality of war

Tony Blair meets the Pope today, resolute in his conviction that war with Iraq "as a last resort" is just, and that John Paul II, who has been vigorous in his denunciation of the war option, has no monopoly of the moral high ground.

After a summit meeting with his close ally Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, in Rome yesterday, Mr Blair said he was aware of the Pope's opposition on moral grounds, but emphatically set out his own moral justification for war. "I obviously know the views of the Pope very well and they're very clear. But there is a moral dimension to this question, too. If we fail to disarm Saddam peacefully, then where does that leave the authority of the UN? And if we leave Saddam in charge of Iraq with his weapons of mass destruction, where does that leave the Iraqi people who are the principal victims of Saddam?"

Mr Blair, who is working to build support for a second UN resolution which would clear the way for military conflict, continued: "In the end, I can't avoid [war] unless Saddam chooses the route of peaceful disarmament."

If efforts succeed to push through a second resolution, expected to be tabled by the US and Britain on Monday, it will, Mr Blair said, "show substantial support for action".

But the Pope has been working at peace diplomacy. Last weekend the Pope's special envoy, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, met President Saddam Hussein. He is credited with persuading the Iraqi leader to publish a decree banning weapons of mass destruction. The Pope has also met the German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, and the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan.