Bush urges allies to show 'backbone'

President George Bush, on the eve of another face-off at the United Nations over disarming Iraq, tonight urged sceptical allies to “show backbone and courage” and stand up to Saddam Hussein.

“I believe when it’s all said and done, free nations will not allow the United Nations to fade into history as an ineffective, irrelevant debating society,” the president told US forces at a Naval station in Florida