Britain's Tony Blair said on Thursday he was confident of pulling France, Russia and other war doubters behind military action against Iraq if it was proved to be in breach of its disarmament obligations. Blair's comments were broadcast shortly before President Bush said he would welcome a new Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq, the clearest sign yet that Washington will put its case for war up for a U.N. vote.

London and Washington have reserved the right to attack Iraq without a second U.N. resolution in case one of the five powers that wield a veto on the Security Council chooses to use it.

"I don't think that is what will happen," Blair said. "I don't think we will get to the position of vetoes."

But the prime minister conceded that if a fresh United Nations resolution authorizing force was blocked, he would have serious problems convincing Britons of the case for war.

"If there were a second U.N. resolution then I think people would be behind me. If there is not, then there is a lot of persuading to do," Blair told members of the public, picked for their reservations about war, on BBC TV's Newsnight program.

The audience illustrated his point. One labeled Blair the U.S. vice-president and Member of Parliament for "Texas North."

An opinion poll last week showed 84 percent of the British public opposed a war against Iraq without a specific U.N. mandate and 43 percent are against it under any circumstances.

Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix will report to the United Nations on February 14 after visiting Baghdad with his counterpart Mohamed ElBaradei for last-ditch talks on Saturday.

Washington and London say Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction in violation of U.N. resolutions demanding it disclose banned weapons programs and destroy the arms.

Both countries say they could use force against Iraq on the basis of previous Security Council resolutions. But public hostility to a war without a new U.N. mandate has created strong political pressure to win the Council's cooperation.

"The United States would welcome and support a new resolution that makes clear the Security Council stands by its previous demands," Bush said on Thursday.

FRANCE WANTS PROOF

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell laid out Washington's case against Iraq, presenting what he said was evidence of continued Iraqi defiance of U.N. weapons inspectors.

France, one of three countries with the veto power to deny a U.S.-British alliance the support of the 15-member U.N. Security Council, said Washington had yet to prove that Iraq possessed banned weapons of mass destruction.

Fellow veto holders China and Russia are also doubters.

Paris is demanding the inspections team be beefed up and given the time it needs to do the job. Germany backed that call.

But Blair, who met President Jacques Chirac in France on Tuesday, appeared confident they would come on board.

"Let's wait and see where France and Russia and China end up on this," he said.

Blair said all Security Council members agree that Iraq must be disarmed, that the inspectors should do their work and that if they were blocked, force should follow. "The only issue between us really is when you make the judgment that the inspectors can't do it," he said.

Britain's U.N. ambassador, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, echoed that confidence, saying it was "very likely" there would be a draft resolution declaring Iraq in "further material breach" -- language that can signal war -- in the second half of February.

Earlier on Thursday, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw dismissed France's desire to boost the weapons inspectors.

"The issue...is not one of more time for the inspectors nor more inspectors, it is about more, much, much more co-operation from the Iraqi regime," he told reporters

PHOTO CAPTION

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) and Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix walk out of 10 Downing Street following talks in London, February 6, 2003. (Toby Melville/Re