(CBS) British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Baghdad Tuesday that "action will follow" if it ignores international demands to let U.N. weapons inspectors back into Iraq.

Describing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as an "international outlaw," he said there could be "no more conditions, no more games, no more prevaricating, no more undermining of the U.N.'s authority."

"And let it be clear that should the will of the U.N. be ignored, action will follow," Blair said.

"Diplomacy is vital. But when dealing with dictators — and none in the world is worse than Saddam — diplomacy has to be backed by the certain knowledge in the dictator's mind that behind the diplomacy is the possibility of force being used."

Blair, who met with President Bush Saturday, has been the staunchest international supporter of Washington's plans for possible military action against Saddam.

Blair was addressing a major British labor union meeting, a day after skeptical delegates nearly approved a resolution opposing military action against Iraq, reports CBS News Correspondent Steve Holt. Acknowledging his audience's concerns, the Prime Minister declared that force should only be a last resort. But he insisted, diplomacy alone might not be enough.

"The United nations must be the way to resolve the threat from Saddam, not a way of avoiding it," he said.

Blair also told the union delegates he doesn't want it on his conscience that he saw this threat coming, and did nothing.

"To allow Saddam to use the weapons he has or to get the weapons he wants would be an act of gross irresponsibility," he said.

Blair is fighting to win over foreign allies to support the British and U.S. call for action, and is also seeking to assuage increasingly outspoken critics at home.

His address will pave the way for Mr. Bush's own major Iraq policy speech, which the president plans to deliver to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.

Iraq denies it is developing weapons of mass destruction.

In other developments:

• In the most belligerent Iraqi remarks in the current standoff with Washington, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan on Tuesday called on all Arabs to confront the United States, its people and its property by any means.
  
  His comments, made to reporters in neighboring Jordan, fell short of explicitly calling on Arabs to attack Americans but underlined Iraq's drive to sway world opinion behind it in its tussle with the United States.
  
  Ramadan's remarks contrasted sharply in tone with those made by Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, who told reporters Monday night that Iraq wanted business, not war, with the United States.
  
  
• Bush administration officials working to build a case against Saddam reportedly have been unable to establish a direct link between the Iraqi leader and global terrorism.
  
  Citing senior intelligence officials and other sources, The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the Central Intelligence Agency had yet to find convincing evidence of an Iraqi terror link despite redoubled efforts to collect and analyze information related to Iraq.
  
  As a result of the CIA's conclusions, the Bush administration has accepted the notion that its stronger case against Iraq is Baghdad's pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, the Post said.
  
  
• Saudi Arabia on Tuesday joined European nations in saying the United States should work through the United Nations to contain any possible Iraqi threat.
  
  Arab nations have staunchly opposed any military action against the Iraqi leader, saying it would throw the Middle East into turmoil. The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, on Tuesday expressed fears an attack would lead to the dismemberment of Iraq, but suggested Riyadh would follow the U.N.'s lead.
  
  "If there is an operation, the decision has to be taken by the United Nations," he said in Paris after a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac.
  
  
• Leaders from France, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands denounced Saddam in exceptionally blunt terms this week, saying he poses a threat with his alleged drive to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. But the leaders suggested Washington first seek U.N. backing for any action.
  
  
• Russia and China oppose any attack on Baghdad and both hold veto powers on the U.N. Security Council. Russia's First Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov said in an interview published Tuesday that an American strike could split the international anti-terrorism coalition.
  
  
• European Commission President Romano Prodi, speaking to Portuguese radio station TSF Tuesday, said he opposes unilateral U.S. military action against Iraq and wants Washington to ensure the support of the Security Council and the United States' allies.