The prime minister has said that he is staking his political future on the growing prospect of war with Iraq.

Tony Blair told MPs that people asked him why he was "risking everything politically" over Iraq.

"I don't want to be the prime minister, when people point the finger back in history, who knew perfectly well these threats were there and did nothing about it, who took the easy way out," he said.

And he conceded that the had still not convinced the public of the need for military action.

Blair will use today's Le Touquet summit to press France on the need for a second UN resolution against Iraq.

Speaking yesterday the prime minister said "we are entering the final phase of a 12-year history of the disarmament of Iraq".

The meeting with president Chirac comes amid a diplomatic offensive set against strained relations between London and Paris.

According to reports today, Blair personally blocked a decision to award a French company a £3 billion contract to build the Royal Navy's two new aircraft carriers because of his anger at Chirac's stance on Iraq and Zimbabwe.

Although the Defence Procurement Agency had originally recommended that the French firm Thales should be the leading contractor in the building of the carriers, ministers said that by opting for BAE Systems, they would be safeguarding 10,000 British jobs.