CAMP DAVID, Md., Sept. 7 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters Saturday that
Iraq's threat to the world is "real" and that his aim in meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush this weekend was to work out the proper strategy for dealing with it.
Even as they met, however, a new poll released in Britain indicated that Blair faces substantial public opposition at home to British involvement in any U.S. strike against Iraq that doesn't have U.N. approval.
Blair spoke to reporters at the U.S. presidential retreat, to which he traveled to talk with Bush on the issue of achieving a change of government in Iraq.
The British leader said that "the threat from Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction, chemical, biological, potentially nuclear weapons capability ... that threat is real."
He added that "the policy of inaction is not a policy we can responsibly subscribe to. So the purpose of our discussion today is to work out the right strategy for dealing with this, because deal with it we must."
Bush, citing a United Nations agency's reports of activity at nuclear-related sites in Iraq, said: "I don't know what more evidence we need."
Blair, speaking about possible U.N. resolutions on Iraq, said that the United Nations "has got to be the way of dealing with this issue, not the way of avoiding dealing with it."
He added: "The point that I would emphasize to you is, it's not us, it's not Britain or America that's in breach of United Nations resolutions. It's Saddam Hussein and Iraq."
Bush, asked if he had received expressions of support from any other nations besides Britain, said the United States had "a lot of support," but he did not identify any specific nations.
In Britain, meanwhile, a new poll published in the Independent on Sunday indicates that Blair faces difficulty selling his message at home.
A poll conducted exclusively for the newspaper found that 60 percent of those surveyed (and almost two-thirds of Labor Party voters) said Britain shouldn't join any unilateral U.S. strike against Iraq.
About 90 percent backed the idea of a deadline for Iraq to re-admit U.N. weapons inspectors, the newspaper said. If Baghdad failed to comply, then 74 percent would support a U.N.-led military action, and 68 percent said Britain should then join.
The survey also found that about 80 percent of those surveyed agreed that it would have been a "good idea" if the allied Gulf War forces had overthrown Saddam.
About 2,000 people took part in the survey this past week. The newspaper didn't report a margin of error for the poll.
