UK's Attorney-General says Iraq war legal

The British government's top lawyer said yesterday war on Iraq would be legal on the grounds of existing UN resolutions but many leading independent experts disagreed.

Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith dismissed arguments that any attack without fresh UN backing would break international law.

"Authority to use force against Iraq exists from the combined effect of resolutions 678, 687 and 1441," he said in a parliamentary statement.

UN resolutions 678 and 687 were passed before and after the 1991 Gulf War. Resolution 1441 was unanimously voted through by the Security Council last year, demanding Iraqi President Saddam Hussein disarm or face "serious consequences".

Among the many legal experts who have said London and Washington would be acting in violation of international law if they were to attack Iraq is the law firm which has Prime Minister Tony Blair's lawyer wife Cherie on its staff.

The United States, Britain and Spain yesterday ended diplomatic efforts to win UN approval for an ultimatum to Iraq through a new resolution, clearing the way for war without Security Council authority.

Goldsmith's advice gives the British government some reassurance that it would not be acting illegally.

Resolution 678 authorised force against Iraq to eject it from Kuwait and 687 said a ceasefire at the end of the Gulf War obliged Iraq to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction.

"In resolution 1441 the Security Council determined that Iraq has been and remains in material breach of resolution 687," Goldsmith said. "The authority to use force under resolution 678 has revived and so continues today.

"All that resolution 1441 requires is reporting to and discussion by the Security Council of Iraq's failures but not an express further decision to authorise force."

But international law experts in Britain and abroad said Goldsmith's interpretation was wrong and that if the UN had meant to authorise force, it would have been explicit.