Straw: It was target Saddam

Jack Straw today dramatically changed the Government's case for going to war on Iraq, proclaiming that throwing out Saddam Hussein was "just cause" for military action.

The Foreign Secretary's declaration to Labour's conference effectively relegated Tony Blair's long-maintained motive for invasion: to neutralise the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

In a speech to delegates, many of whom opposed the war, Mr Straw focused on Saddam's brutality and played down the hunt for his illegal arsenal. The shift gave the clearest signal yet that the interim report of the Iraq Survey Group, expected as soon as tomorrow, will show US and British inspectors have so far found no clear evidence of illegal weapons.

Until now Mr Blair has avoided the line taken by members of President George W Bush's administration that the war was about "regime change". But Mr Straw reeled off a list of Saddam's cruelties and said: "That this was allowed to go on for 20 years or more must shame us all.

"I have no doubt that the fall of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime was a just cause."

He admitted the extent of the problems on the ground in Iraq, where Coalition troops are under daily attack, and parts of the country are still without water and power.

But he warned that a decision not to go to war would have carried consequences of its own - including a weakening of the authority of the United Nations and the reinforcement of Saddam's rule.

"I understand how controversial our decision to take military action has been," he said. "I respect those that took a different view. They did so for the best of reasons. But just as we who took the decision for military action have to face up to the consequences in Iraq today, I also urge those who took the opposite view over action to accept the likely consequences of their position.

"I readily accept that the picture on the ground in Iraq today is not satisfactory. Security is a serious concern. The challenges of helping to heal the scars of a country battered by decades of repression and dictatorship are substantial."

His speech was set to further infuriate Labour opponents of the war, already angry that an anti-war resolution was thrown out on a technicality. They had prepared to go on the attack in the two-hour debate, but after a behind-the-scenes row, delegates upheld, by a show of hands, the decision to drop the resolution of the RMT transport union It meant Mr Blair had avoided the risk of an embarrassing defeat.

The only conference vote is on a bland policy report praising efforts to rebuild Iraq after the war.

During a stormy debate, Labour treasurer Jimmy Elsby claimed the Government's policies had ended in young Britons being "sent home in f lag-covered coffins". He said: "Never again must we take might as right and the UN as wrong. We have created a wasteland and called it peace. But other constituency delegates spoke up for Tony Blair.