PENDLE MP Gordon Prentice has warned Tony Blair not to rush into war against Iraq.

He told the Prime Minister that weapons inspectors from the United Nations should be given more time.

The Labour backbencher intervened after Mr Blair gave a statement on Iraq and his meeting on Washington with US President George W Bush.

Mr Prentice said: "Like me many people believe that we are being led by the nose into war."

And he said the weapons inspectors must be "given time to complete their task and there must be no imposition of artificial deadlines." Mr Blair said there would be no artificial deadlines but Saddam Hussein had a long history of obstructing weapons inspectors and hiding weapons of mass destruction.

He said that Saddam knew perfectly well what to do -- declare their chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes and disarm.