LONDON, February 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Saturday, February 15, that weapons inspectors will get more time to establish whether Iraq has complied with U.N. disarmament demands, in what seems to be a concession to an anti-war front after U.N. chief weapons inspectors' report affirmed on yesterday that Iraqi regime was improving cooperation.

"Blix reported to the U.N. yesterday and there will be more time given to inspections. He will report again on February 28," Blair told a meeting of Labor Party's spring conference in Glasgow in his first public reaction to the report.

Blair, U.S. President George W. Bush's staunchest ally, said the Iraq crisis must continue to be dealt with through the United Nations, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"I continue to want to solve the issue of Iraq and weapons of mass destruction through the United Nations," he said, adding, "I hope, even now, Iraq can be disarmed peacefully, with or without Saddam," he said.

He acknowledged a proposal by chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix that his team be given more time to verify Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

Blix told the Council there had been improved cooperation by Iraq, but that Saddam had still not accounted for alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Blair said that that the U.N should be the way to deal with Iraq, not the way to avoid it.

"Let the United Nations mean what it says and do what it means," he said.

Anti-war protesters had planned to stage a "Jericho Rumpus" outside the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, where Blair was speaking, in order to disrupt the speech.

In a message to those taking part in the demonstrations, Blair said: "As you watch your TV pictures of the march, ponder this: if there are 500,000 on that march, that is still less than the number of people whose deaths Saddam has been responsible for."

"If there are one million, that is still less than the number of people who died in the wars he started."

Blair dismissed concessions announced by Baghdad this past week, saying: "To anyone familiar with Saddam's tactics of deception and evasion, there is a weary sense of deja vu.

"As ever, at the last minute, concessions are made. And as ever, it is the long finger that is directing them. The concessions are suspect. Unfortunately the weapons are real."

Blair recognized that a war would lead to innocent people dying and "real consequences."

"But if we show weakness now, if we allow the plea for more time to become just an excuse for prevarication until the moment for action passes, then it will not only be Saddam who is repeating history," he said.

"The menace, and not just from Saddam, will grow; the authority of the U.N. will be lost; and the conflict when it comes will be more bloody."

“In the fight to persuade anti-war voters there is morality on both sides, No. 10 (headquarters of Blair’s Government) yesterday disgorged a new fact for analysts to fight over”, The Guardian reported.