Clare Short could resign over Iraq

By Katherine Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) - Cabinet Minister Clare Short has threatened to resign if the country goes to war with Iraq without the backing of a second U.N. resolution.

The announcement by the International Development Secretary ratcheted up the pressure on Prime Minister Tony Blair, facing rising disaffection from the public and his own party over his support for a U.S.-led attack to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"I will not uphold a breach of international law or this undermining of the U.N. and I will resign from the government," Short told the BBC.

Junior government member Andy Reed quit his post on Sunday and there was speculation four others could follow amid a rising rebellion among the ranks of Blair's Labour Party against his unswerving support for a U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

A new poll showed that only 15 percent of Britons backed an attack on Iraq without a second U.N. resolution.

Britain, Spain and the United States are expected to press for a U.N. Security Council vote on a second resolution this week after British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw put forward a draft resolution giving Saddam until March 17 to disarm or face military action.

France has warned it may exercise its power of veto on the resolution, arguing that U.N. weapons inspectors are making headway.

Iraq denies having banned weapons of mass destruction.

Short, renowned for holding and voicing forceful opinions, accused Blair of making a major blunder, politically, diplomatically and personally.

"The current situation is deeply reckless; reckless for the world, reckless for the undermining of the U.N. in this disorderly world...reckless with our government, reckless with his own future, position and place in history. It's extraordinarily reckless, I'm very surprised by it," she said.

BLAIR TALKS TO WORLD LEADERS

Blair spoke to several world leaders at the weekend to drum up support for the new resolution on Iraq. But he faced an uphill struggle.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin told Blair by telephone on Sunday that the crisis could be resolved politically and weapons inspections in Iraq should continue and be strengthened, China's Xinhua news agency said.

China, along with fellow permanent members France, Britain, the United States and Russia, has a veto on the Security Council. Russia also opposes a resolution that would implicitly or explicitly authorise military action.

"What I'm hoping to achieve is a passage of a...second resolution making it clear if that is the case that Saddam remains in non-compliance with the United Nations law," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a television interview recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday there was a "strong chance" of getting nine or 10 states to back the resolution.

A second U.N. resolution would take a weight off Blair's shoulders.

Blair is still smarting from a vote in parliament last month in which more than a quarter of Labour parliamentarians voted against his stance on Iraq, the biggest rebellion since he took office in 1997.