Blair 'should learn Iraq lessons'

Mr Cook said defeat for President Bush could be good for Mr Blair

Tony Blair should make a pledge to the Labour Party conference not to launch any more pre-emptive strikes, former minister Robin Cook has said.

The former leader of the Commons, who resigned over the war, said if Mr Blair accepted the lessons of Iraq he could "build bridges" with opponents.

Mr Cook also said a victory for John Kerry in the US presidential elections would benefit Mr Blair.

Anti-war voters would see the prospect of military adventures diminishing.

Mr Cook told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme: "[Mr Blair]has to understand that he cannot take Britain to war again in such very divided circumstances.

"One good thing he could do at this party conference would be to rule out the doctrine of pre-emptive strike which George Bush invented to justify the attack on Iraq.

"That places enormous stress on having the correct intelligence and one of the things we have learnt from Iraq is that you will never have intelligence good enough to justify war on its own."

Mr Cook said the argument that war could in any case be justified for humanitarian reasons would not sway voters annoyed that the US and UK had opposed the wishes of the international community.

But he said there was no prospect of Mr Blair being toppled by his own MPs and party activists, and that he could improve his standing by admitting mistakes.

"Nobody is going to seriously challenge Tony for the leadership.

"If he could show that he has accepted some of the lessons of Iraq and it's not going to happen then, yes, he can build bridges to the many people who found it difficult to accept that decision [to go to war]."