Blair Breaks Holiday for Jordan Talks

Tony Blair last night turned his winter holiday in Egypt into a mini-political mission to the Middle East, with a flying visit to Jordan for an informal summit with King Abdullah II.

The prime minister, accompanied by his wife Cherie, left their children at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh for the private dinner at the royal residence in the Jordanian port Aqaba.

It is the second time Mr Blair has interrupted his family holiday to meet Arab heads of state, renewing speculation that an attack on Iraq is imminent.

On Wednesday the prime minister held two hours of talks at a private dinner at his resort with President Mubarak.

The twin meetings come after the British leader issued a starkly pessimistic forecast for the new year, where he warned that Saddam Hussein "will have to be disarmed by force" if he continued to "flout international law".

Although Mr Blair added the proviso that "no one wants military confrontation with Iraq", his comments came as the US president warned that President Saddam faced a "day of reckoning".

King Abudullah is among those Arab leaders warning against any action against Iraq. However, despite the disagreements between the two men on the question, Mr Blair is likely to have won some credit for his planned peace summit in London on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this year.

This week the Iraqi deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, accused America of "imperialist designs" and said it was preparing to invade to seize control of Iraq's oil resources.