Guardian
Downing Street today welcomed the thinktank report on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction as a "significant and serious piece of work".
The government's own dossier of evidence against Saddam Hussein, gathered from MI6, UN weapon inspectors and US intelligence services, will be published in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, the Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, had again added his voice to those calling for pre-emptive action against Iraq.
Mr Duncan Smith said: "This man is more than just any other dictator. He possesses and is likely to possess the ability to threaten countries around him and much farther afield including the UK if we don't take action now. That is the big difference."
At No 10 this morning, the prime minister's official spokesman argued that the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) report was "significant".
He said: "This is clearly a very serious piece of work. It has been produced without any access to intelligence materials ... It paints a powerful picture of a highly unstable regime, with access to biological and chemical weapons.
"On the nuclear side ... without any inspections since 1998, Iraq has had the opportunity to reconstitute elements of its nuclear weapons programme and to keep that secret.
"I think it is also significant in terms of how it portrays very clearly and very succinctly, precisely how Saddam has played games with the weapons inspectors and the international community in the time that [the UN] had a presence inside the country."
He added: "If you look at this report, we are not talking obviously washing powder here. If you look at the page on the biological weapons programme, [it reads] botulinum toxin - symptoms: nausea, weakness, vomiting, respiratory paralysis, mortality if untreated 60%-90%.
"The picture it paints is important and I think it is fair to say that the world is waking up to the threat Saddam is posing."
The government's own long awaited dossier on President Saddam's weapons capacity would include intelligence material not available to the IISS, the spokesman added.
Although Tony Blair said last week that the dossier would be published shortly, the spokesman said that it would not be this week.
"There is still a debate and discussion going on about precisely what we can and can't include," he said.
"Obviously, when it comes to intelligence there is always a very serious issue about how it should be produced without jeopardising your sources.
"It is also worth making clear that whatever is produced is by definition going to be incomplete, in as much as we have had no access to Iraq for four years."
On other aspects of the Iraqi issue, he said there was "a desire to build as broad as possible a coalition of international support".
US president George Bush's speech to the UN general assembly on Thursday would reflect that, the spokesman said.
And he argued that there was already a growing international understanding about the need for action.
"If you look at what Jacques Chirac has been saying, it rather gives lie to the idea that others in the international community aren't focusing in on this issue and recognising that it is a threat.
"There is a debate about how to go about dealing with it, that is where we are at the moment. But that there is a threat I think we can be in doubt when you look at this report today."
The spokesman did not respond directly when asked whether Mr Blair believed a new UN resolution was required.
He replied only: "He thinks that the [Mr Bush] will be making a speech later this week ... He believes that the UN can be the route to resolve this but that it has to deliver."
Asked about weekend remarks by former American arms inspector Scott Ritter - who suggested that President Bush was "on the verge of making an historic mistake" - the spokesman said the government was focusing on what it knew from UN special commission weapons inspectors, the international atomic energy agency, current intelligence and what President Saddam had done in the past.
"Scott Ritter has his view, it is not a view shared by the British government. There is no doubt that Saddam poses a very real threat. There is no doubt that he is in breach of 23 out of 27 of his obligations set out by the UN," the spokesman said.
Speaking on Sky News, the Mr Duncan Smith warned that President Saddam could possess the ability to threaten the UK "if we don't take action now".
And the Tory leader, in what appeared to be a swipe at the prime minister's critics, said: "Working with the United States is not about running after the United States.
Mr Duncan Smith said he was struck by the way the report by the IISS had highlighted the fact that President Saddam had the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon.
"What he lacks is the fissile material to create that weapon, but they did point out that he could do so if he got such material in a year."
That, he said, must pose a very real danger to the UK and Britain's allies in the area.
"If we don't deal with him now and force him to get rid of his weapons then we could be all faced with a very, very serious problem in the next couple of years."
"I give a very simple warning. I agree we need to go back to the UN and get the UN security council to agree to a very tight programme.
"When you deal with Saddam Hussein you must remember this man is capable of almost anything, so it is no good saying, 'OK, in with the inspectors'. Let's make sure he is on a very tight deadline otherwise any such resolutions will be worthless."
