London: British Prime Minister Tony Blair on September 7 said it was "essential" that an effective regime should be put in place to monitor weapons inspections in Iraq.

Blair, who spoke on the plane that took him to Washington for talks with US President George W Bush on possible military intervention in Iraq, said it was "essential that there is a proper regime in place for monitoring inspections" as the threat by Baghdad was very real.

"We haven't the faintest idea of what has been going on for the last four years other than what we know is an attempt to carry on rebuilding these weapons but the details of it is something that the Iraqi regime should be forced to disclose," he said.

The British leader is Washington's closest ally against Saddam Hussein's regime, pressing world leaders for support and signaling he is ready to pay the "blood price" for action against Baghdad.

Blair joined Bush on September 6 in a diplomatic round of telephone calls to world leaders, telephoning Russian President Vladimir Putin and France's Jacques Chirac, but failed to lift their opposition to a US-led military assault.

Bush and Blair argue that Saddam is developing weapons of mass destruction and represents a critical threat to the West.

Calling the Iraq issue serious, Blair said, "the longer you go on without a proper regime of inspection in place, the greater that capability is".

"Four years is a long time and we simply don't know," he said, adding, "The threat is very real and not to just to America or to the international community but to Britain."

"Whatever the inspection regime in place, it has to be fully effective," he said.