Clare Short will not be resigning from the government despite an earlier threat to walk unless Britain secured a second UN resolution.

After considering her position, the international development secretary said she had decided to remain in her post.

Short says she is still "very critical" of the handling of the Iraq crisis, even although she will remain in the Cabinet.

Defending her decision not to resign, the minister said she had given serious thought to the issue.

She concluded that it would be "cowardly" not to contribute to tackling the problems that lie ahead.

"I know I will be heavily criticised for this decision, but we must all do what we think is right in the circumstances we are now in," she said.

Downing Street conceded that Short had "genuine concerns and anxieties" but maintained they did not put her at odds with government policy.

A spokesman for the prime minister said that the international development secretary had worries over the failure to put in place a road map to peace between Israel and Palestine and fears about the reconstruction of Iraq following war.

Downing Street insisted that Tony Blair "shares those concerns" and would be working to address them.

Speaking later, Short revealed that she had offered to resign last week, but had been turned down by the prime minister.

"He said to me yesterday 'You can be a very awkward person but I want you to stay. We need you for this'. That is his view," she said.

"But I am not doing it just to please him. I am doing it because I think it is what I ought to do but obviously I would have resigned if it was what he wanted me to do," she said.

Short expected the military campaign to be "very careful" and expressed hopes that it Saddam Hussein's regime would "crumble very rapidly".

"If that is the situation...we have to go forward and try to do this properly and if I walk away, I am actually being a coward. I am keeping my pure hands," she said. "I'd be more popular but, in the end, that is cowardly."

The minister confessed to "turmoil" over her decision.

"I love this country and the parliamentary Labour Party. Everyone's in turmoil. I think the country should be in turmoil when it's going to war...we must all do what we think is right," she said.

"I may well be on borrowed time and so be it. At the moment, this is about Iraq and I will do what I can," she added.

Welsh secretary Peter Hain praised her decision to stay in government. "I don't think anybody could say of Clare that she's unprincipled," he told the BBC.

"She is one of the most passionate Cabinet ministers and Labour figures that I've come across."