A series of United Nations Security Council resolutions provides the legal basis for military action against Iraq, the Government's top law advisor argued yesterday.

The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, said in a written Parliamentary answer that the authority to use force against Iraq stemmed from the combined effect of resolutions 678, 687 and 1441.

"All of these resolutions were adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter which allows the use of force for the express purpose of restoring international peace and security," he said.

Resolution 678: The Security Council authorised force against Iraq, to eject it from Kuwait and to restore peace and security in the area.

Resolution 687: This set out the ceasefire conditions after Operation Desert Storm. In it, the Security Council imposed continuing obligations on Iraq to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction in order to restore international peace and security in the area.

Resolution 1441: The Security Council, determining that Iraq had been and remained in material breach of resolution 687, gave Iraq "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations" and warned the country of the "serious consequences" if it did not.

Lord Goldsmith said that as Iraq was still in breach or resolution 687, "the authority to use force under resolution 678 has revived and so continues today".

Graham Allen, the anti-war Labour MP for Nottingham North, was dismissive of the Government's legal case.

"The Government has been making up the law as it goes along," he said.

"For weeks and weeks, the Government has worked flat out to get a further resolution from the United Nations Security Council . . . now we are told that all that effort was unnecessary.

"The Government's arguments have brought our country into contempt.

"It proposes to interpret UN language in a way that it has never been interpreted before. It thinks that the words 'serious consequences' in a UN resolution allow any country to invade another country, throw out its government, occupy its territory indefinitely, and make it pay for the occupation by looting its resources."