The full statement made by the deputy prime minister outside 10 Downing Street following the emergency Cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon.

"The prime minister and the foreign secretary reported that the diplomatic process had broken down, and that we had been unable to break the deadlock.

We deeply regret that the French intransigence and the Iraqi non-compliance have left us with no option but to bring discussions on our draft resolution to an end. Everyone knows that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, nobody believes he was cooperating, nobody seriously believes that he will.

Yet even faced with such obstructions, the response of the French is to say, 'The only sanction is more discussion, then more time, with no commitment to military action regardless of what he does or doesn't do'.

Jack Straw will make a statement on the diplomatic crisis in the Commons later today. There will also be a business statement to allow the House to debate this tomorrow. The prime minister will lead that debate and ask the House and the country to support our efforts to disarm Saddam Hussein of his weapons of mass destruction.

Nobody has tried harder than our government and our prime minister to resolve this diplomatically. But once France made clear they could veto a new resolution whatever the circumstances, it became impossible to move forward.

The prime minister told the Cabinet just now that if the international community had stayed united and firm in its determination to implement resolution 1441, he could have disarmed Saddam without a shot being fired.

So now we have to face up to the consequences of this crisis. We've always said Saddam had to be disarmed. That is the will of the United Nations.

It was best done peacefully. That has not been possible, and there now are only two options left: Either Saddam goes into exile, or he is disarmed by force.

Tomorrow the prime minister will be asking for support, should that ultimate action of the last resort be needed.

We will also be setting out our commitment to the humanitarian effort that will be required to rebuild Iraq from the ravages of the Saddam era, and our continuing commitment to the Middle East peace process."