Eastleigh MP David Chidgey has sounded a warning about the United States and Britain going it alone in any attack on Iraq.

Mr Chidgey, a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, was responding to a suggestion by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that the US and the UK should act alone if the UN failed to meet its responsibili-ties.

But the Eastleigh MP has set out his opposition to any unilateral invasion of Iraq.

Mr Chidgey said: "Both governments will find it hard to build up public support for a pre-emptive attack without the backing of the UN and having failed to produce hard evidence that a threat from Iraq is imminent.

"Under the United Nations' charter, member states can invoke the right to self-defence but only if the danger of an attack is immediate and acute.''

But the MP said: "So far nothing has been put forward by the United Nations or the UK to suggest that this situation exists.

"If evidence so far introduced does not convince political leaders such as the presidents of Russia and France that action against Iraq is needed urgently, how can Mr Blair expect the British public to be persuaded?''