Edinburgh: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on August 27 that the United States was being "prudent" in keeping open the option of a military strike on Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussain.

Straw told reporters in Edinburgh that the entire world "has to take very seriously the threat posed by Saddam Hussain" whose regime he said was developing weapons of mass destruction and flouting UN resolutions.

"We don't rule out the possibility of military action, and neither in our view should anybody else," he said. "It's therefore quite prudent of the US government not to rule out military action against the Saddam Hussain regime."

US Vice President Dick Cheney issued a forceful call for military action against Iraq on August 26, saying Saddam represented "a mortal threat".

Straw said, "The ball is now in Saddam Hussain's court. What we want to see is the acceptance by Saddam Hussain of the admission of weapons inspectors, so they can go back without conditions and without restrictions."

He, however, cautioned, "No decisions about military action have been taken (in London) and no decisions about military action have been taken in the United States."