With war looming, today's papers react to the continuing crisis over Iraq:

Telegraph

"Any fair-minded person watching Tony Blair's performance in the House of Commons yesterday would have concluded that we have a prime minister fit to lead us into war. Mr Blair displayed courtesy, conviction, clarity, courage and even wit. His line was that the UN has willed the end of the disarmament of Saddam Hussein again and again: now the members of the security council must show that they will the means. Whether or not it was a mistake to 'go the UN route' is, for the time being, irrelevant...It is worth appealing to fair-mindedness here because that quality seems to have deserted the debate about Iraq. Whatever people's doubts and fears, there is something sick about a political culture in which television audiences slow-handclap a prime minister on the brink of war and MPs of his own party scurry round thinking of ways of overthrowing him."

Guardian

"The central reality is that Mr Blair has little alternative, in his own terms, than to continue to focus on getting a better, more consensual, more principled second resolution, on a more realistic timetable, than the one proposed last week. Some hints of such a draft have emerged this week, but the picture is far from clear yet. Of all the realities that Mr Blair must face, however, this remains the greatest: British participation in an Iraq war lacking rock-hard legal authority, lacking proper UN backing and lacking the authority of parliament could be catastrophic for everything that Labour was elected to do."

FT

"As the vote on a second United Nations security council resolution on Iraq approaches, the political strains are growing - internationally and domestically. Cool heads are needed if the campaign to disarm Saddam Hussein of his weapons of mass destruction is not to result in fatal damage to the western alliance and its leading members...The US must not only win the war but also win the peace - and a coalition with the widest possible membership will assist in that. The way to guarantee such a coalition is a second UN resolution, which is why patience in trying to pass one is required on all sides."

Times

"This is a challenging moment for the UN, but it is also quite straightforward. What will be before it, by one means or another, is less a second resolution than Resolution 1441. It reaffirms past requirements, insists on a speedy, specific and substantial downpayment for disarmament and allows for a realistic timetable. If it is not embraced, then the UN will have the potency of a diplomatic eunuch. The surrender of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction would become an all but voluntary event which means, of course, that it would not happen. Neither the United States nor the United Kingdom nor any responsible member of the security council could afford to expose the world to that continuing risk."

Independent

"Mr Blair began yesterday looking more isolated than at any time since he became prime minister, with public opinion, his parliamentary party and his prime foreign ally all threatening to desert. A confident and masterly display of issue-evasion at prime minister's questions won him much-needed time. It must be less certain whether even a similarly deft touch with key foreign leaders will secure the second resolution, and the legal and political cover he so urgently requires."

Mail

"Not for the first time when the chips are down, the prime minister reveals extraordinary reserves of resilience and courage. After the fury and near panic in Downing Street over the suggestion that America is ready to go to war without Britain, yesterday's performance in the Commons was arguably his most impressive since this crisis began. It needed to be."

Mirror

"This is the day of reckoning. When Tony Blair learns if he will get the support of the United Nation for waging war on Iraq. No one could accuse the prime minister of not working hard enough to win round the rest of the security council. He has argued and negotiated and shuttled back and forth. But the time for talking has stopped. This is it. Astonishingly, despite all that effort, there may not even be a vote on the second resolution. The Spanish don't want to risk losing and president Bush couldn't care less about the United Nations. It is Mr Blair who desperately wants a new resolution. Without one, his party will fall apart, his government will suffer several resignations and his own future would be in doubt."

Sun

"The next 72 hours will be the most crucial in Tony Blair's political life. War looks inevitable. The countdown has begun. With the minnows of the United Nations still refusing to back America and Britain, a vote on a second resolution looks more and more unlikely now. After all, why bother to force a vote you might lose? That means Blair and George Bush may have to go it alone, with the risk that if anything goes wrong the prime minister is in serious trouble with his fractious party and the nations in Europe he once called partners. That is the measure of Blair's courage and determination."

Express

"President Bush is well aware that he needs British support for war against Iraq, not just for the valuable contribution our forces can make but if he is to boost legitimacy for this action. Time is running out. Mr Blair must not let the power politics of our neighbours divert him from his task of winning over the remaining security council members but, even without their support, Mr Blair must join with America to ensure the threat from Saddam is removed."