LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair has told U.S. President George W. Bush that Britain will support a U.S. attack on Iraq if Saddam Hussein refuses to accept the resumption of arms inspections, the ***Guardian*** said on Saturday.

The British daily reported a Washington source familiar with the administration had said that Bush was considering his options in the belief that Blair would go along with Washington.

Blair had privately offered "in principle" to lend full British military and diplomatic backing for an assault, the newspaper reported. This would involve contributing 30,000 troops, an armored division backed up by sea and air support.

Blair is understood to have told Bush that British support was contingent on the completion of a genuine effort to persuade Iraq to resume UN weapons inspections.

Bush had also obtained agreement in principle for support from France in personal conversations with French President Jacques Chirac, the report said.

Blair said on Thursday an attack was not imminent but held out little hope for weapons inspectors returning.

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister's Office said Blair had made it clear that no decisions on Iraq had yet been made.

"The prime minister's position has not changed since yesterday," she told Reuters.

Blair has staunchly supported Bush since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, making it difficult to decouple from the United States if it did target Iraq.

He faces growing unease among his Labour parliamentarians over his support for Bush's declared war on terrorism and mounting speculation that the United States is planning an onslaught on Iraq to topple Saddam in the next few months.

Iraq insists its weapons of mass destruction have already been destroyed, and it refuses to readmit inspectors until UN sanctions imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait are lifted.

The trade embargo has caused widespread suffering among the Iraqi people, particularly the poor, the elderly and children.