Talks at the United Nations have ended in acrimony and the weapons inspectors have been ordered to leave Iraq.

Kofi Annan, UN secretary general, said that following the collapse of diplomatic negotiations he was withdrawing all personnel from the country.

In London, deputy prime minister John Prescott made an angry statement in Downing Street insisting that French intransigence and Iraqi non-compliance were to blame for the current crisis.

He said there were two options left; either Saddam Hussein could go into exile or military action to remove him from power would begin.

"We could have disarmed Saddam without a shot being fired. Now we have to face up to the consequences of this crisis," Prescott said.

He defended Tony Blair's handling of the crisis. "Nobody has tried harder than our government and our prime minister."

President Bush will give an address to the American public at 1.00am UK time tonight.

He is expected to set a short deadline for Saddam Hussein to surrender power of face military action.

Negotiations at the UN were brutally short on Monday morning as the UK ambassador declared talks "over" almost as soon as they had begun.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock withdrew the controversial second security council resolution along with his US and Spanish counterparts after it became clear over the weekend that it would not secure a majority.

Britain's ambassador to the United Nations has declared that diplomatic efforts to secure a second resolution for the disarmament of Iraq are "over".

Greenstock joined ministers in blaming France for scuppering the resolution, which would have issued Iraq with an ultimatum to disarm by today or face military action.

He said: "One country in particular has underlined its intention to veto any ultimatum 'no matter what the circumstances'.

"That country rejected our proposed compromise before even the Iraqi government itself and has put forward suggestions that would row back on the unanimous agreement of the Council in [the first] resolution 1441.

"Those suggestions would amount to no ultimatum, no pressure and no disarmament."