The Liberal Democrat leader has criticised Sunday's emergency Iraq summit as "a council of despair".

But Charles Kennedy has insisted that he will still offer his support to British troops if they go into action against Iraq.

He used his keynote address at the party's spring conference to slam the meeting between Tony Blair and George W Bush in the Azores as holding out "little hope of peace"."It has all the makings of a final council of war between the so-called coalition of the willing," he told delegates.

"I see it as a council of despair. I believe that it's too early to give up the hope of a peaceful outcome. But the signs are that president Bush and Tony Blair have decided to abandon that hope.""They say that they're going the extra mile for peace. I don't see how. This meeting looks highly unlikely to go a single extra inch for peace."

Kennedy also claimed there was little public support for the prime minister's course of action."The British government may have signed up in the ranks of the willing. But the British nation has not. This will not be a war which most in our country have sought or support," said Kennedy.

The Liberal Democrat leader told party members that the case for war was yet to be convincingly made.

But he said that despite this the Lib Dems would rally behind British troops when the "first shot is fired".

"Our armed forces are required to risk their lives. If the fighting begins, everyone in this hall would wish a speedy and successful conclusion to hostilities and the safe return of all members of our armed forces."

"There is no inconsistency between criticising the strategy of the government and supporting the service people whose duty is to carry that strategy out," he said.

Kennedy warned the government would also have to plan for a humanitarian crisis of "huge proportions" and that a war could alienate moderate British Muslims.

"Those are factors which have to be weighed very carefully in the balance before any decision is taken to go to war. They're factors which I fear haven't been considered nearly hard enough," he said.