Clare Short's future as a member of the Cabinet continues to be in doubt despite a meeting with the prime minister on Friday morning.

The international development secretary was in Number 10 for around 45 minutes for a discussion with Tony Blair.

"The prime minister meets ministerial colleagues all the time. It goes without saying at a time like this that he is seeing a number of different colleagues," said the official spokesman.

"Clearly Clare Short is an important member of the government in relation to the humanitarian issue and we are all working flat-out to try and find a peaceful resolution to this."

However Short's Cabinet position was thrown into fresh doubt on Thursday night when she defended her decision to call the prime minister "reckless".

Speaking to the BBC, the international development secretary indicated she had no regrets about last weekend's comments.

"I said what I said because I was fearful that we were just going to end up in conflict without everything being properly attended to," she said.

"I thought it was necessary to draw attention to those things. If things come out right I will just be happy. That is all I am trying to achieve."

Reports suggest that even if a new resolution is secured, she will be sacked for speaking out against the prime minister's chosen course of action.

After Thursday's Cabinet meeting she emerged from Downing Street to briefly tell reporters that she was still a member of the government.

But she left Number 10 more than 50 minutes after the meeting broke up, leading to speculation that she had been party to prolonged discussions about her next steps during the crisis.

In a radio interview on Sunday, Short had warned that the use of force without explicit UN authority would be a breach of international law.

"If there is not UN authority for military action or if there is not UN authority for the reconstruction of the country, I will not uphold a breach of international law or this undermining of the UN and I will resign from the government," she said.

But the depth of anger in the party was indicated by comments from chairman John Reid, who suggested she had "undermined" the prime minister.

"I am not going to comment on any individual," he said, saying that diplomatic efforts were still ongoing.

"There is a feeling in the party and the public that people should not undermine those efforts. I think that is certainly the feeling of the Parliamentary Labour Party and the party.