PRESIDENT Bush will feel emboldened by the victory of his Republican Party in the mid-term elections.

With a fresh mandate and a pliant Congress, the President may feel encouraged to go-it-alone against Iraq.

He must resist that temptation.

While the election victory may give him the right to claim the support of his own people, he must not take the support of the rest of the world for granted.

Unilateral action by the United States poses a greater threat than Saddam Hussein to world peace and security.

It will undermine all efforts of the past 14 months to create and maintain the global coalition against terror and it will risk inflaming the tension in the Middle East

Pressure from the international community, exerted through the United Nations, offers the best hope of nullifying any threat from Saddam.

It is essential that the UN tomorrow adopts the latest resolution against Iraq, and adopts it unanimously.

The resolution sets down a timetable for inspection and verification of Iraq's weaponry, and clearly spells out the consequences of non-compliance.

It is imperative that President Bush is careful to ensure that international opposition to Saddam holds firm. Only by first exploring every possible peaceful means to solve the crisis, will world opinion condone military action.

Welcome rethink

THE admission that the Government made mistakes during the foot-and-mouth crisis is to be welcomed.

The honest appraisal by Margaret Beckett offers some hope that meaningful lessons may be learned from the epidemic.

It became clear last year that relevant authorities had no coherent strategy to combat the disease.

The policy of mass culling and pyres was a product of the 1967 outbreak, where movement of livestock was limited.

Slaughter was never going to be fully effective in modern farming, which entails the movement of farm animals across the country.

The use of vaccination to contain the disease appears a sensible option and must be given careful consideration.