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As someone who has seen war first hand, and as a father of three young adults, it was my hope that we could have resolved this conflict and disarmed Saddam Hussein without war. However, this was not the case.

We, Britain and Germany, can neither of us be happy about our handling of the Iraq war.

Rather, it is through conciliation and compromise that we are building a fair Iraq, a just state for all its peoples.

Iraq is a better place, absolutely worth it.

We should not mislead the Iraqis into thinking they have unlimited time to reach a settlement. The longer they think that, the less likely they will be to act.

We will win again in Iraq; I do think that Iraq can definitely be handled. I think that it can be kept intact.

As much as we might look for opportunities to keep Iraq together, we need to be prepared for the reality that it's not going to stay together.

What a war in Iraq will not do is bring about peace in the Middle East or end the injustices that feed resentment and breed terrorists.

I can't accept collective responsibility for the decision to commit Britain now to military action in Iraq without international agreement or domestic support.