IT was announced on August 5 that 2,500 religious leaders have called on the British government to desist from war against Iraq.

The Daily Mirror's telephone poll of over 20,000 people indicates that 91 per cent are opposed to aggression against Iraq, whole Channel Four News, in a poll put together in just two days, states that 52 per cent are also opposed, with 14 per cent undecided.

Most member countries of the European Union do not share President Bush's enthusiasm for a military strike against Iraq. Neither does Russia, China or India; the latter two countries representing one third of the entire population of the planet. Not a single state in the Gulf wants war.

This is massive, utterly convincing and overwhelming evidence that there is no support for such a policy. So why does the British government persist in supporting US plans for aggression?

Tam Dalyell, the most senior member of the House of Commons, stated that it is every MP's responsibility to cast a vote on this matter and to be held accountable for that in the eyes of his or her own electorate.

Will Jack Straw, our own MP, support the recalling of parliament, so that we may have the debate in the open, with recorded votes by individual members? Will he involve himself in polling his constituents so that he may ascertain at first hand what their actual views are rather than his interpretation of those views?

As Britain's Foreign Secretary, will he support Iraqi initiatives in inviting the UN Weapons Inspectorate for talks and the invitation to US Congressmen to visit Iraq and look at all the sites that they believe to be the locations for weapons, either nuclear, chemical or biological? And if he won't why not?

Surely, this is better than war. Blackburn with Darwen Stop the War Coalition is absolutely clear that there is no case for aggression against Iraq. Millions think the same. A war takes the world to the edge of the precipice with incalculable moral, economic, political and military consequences for us all.

We cannot allow this to happen. We urge all members of the public to write to their MPs opposing war against Iraq.

GEORGE S DAVIES (Chairman, Blackburn with Darwen Stop the War Coalition), Redearth Road, Darwen.