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Blair refuses vote pledge on replacing UK's nuclear arms

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Feb 7, IRNA
UK Nuclear Weapons-Blair
Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday refused to say whether the government will allow a parliamentary vote on a decision due shortly on whether to replace Britain's ageing submarine-based Trident nuclear weapons system.

Giving evidence to the Liaison Committee, Blair said that there would be the 'fullest possible' debate on the controversial issue and that the decision would be taken in a 'more open way' than had happened previously.

But when pressed by the all-party group of committee chairman on the committee, he said, "I was not committing myself to a vote." He added that he was also 'not ruling it out either'.

Anti-war MPs, including revels in the ruling Labor Party, have been campaigning for a parliamentary vote on Blair's expected decision to update the country's nuclear deterrent, which was last done so in 1980.

Trident is due to be decommissioned in about 20 years' time but because of the lead period required, the government is due to make a decision on a likely replacement before the next general election, which is due before 2010.

Blair said Parliament tended to find a way to have a vote on big issues, and said a decision such as this was 'not going to just pop out one day'.

Asked about when a promised debate on replacing Trident might begin, Blair told the Liaison committee that he could be specific yet but added that by the end of the year 'we should have a clear idea of the timeline' for it.

Defense Secretary John Reid said last year that no decision on replacing Trident had been taken, but he added that the government was committed to keeping Britain's nuclear deterrent.

Last year, a group of writers, led by Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter, wrote an open letter to MPs saying there was 'no legitimate political, military or moral reason' for replacing Trident.

Opposition is also based upon the cost, which some MPs estimate could be at least pnds 20 billion (dlrs 35 bn).

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