Analysis: Blair garnering support

Blair presented evidence of bin Laden's involvement in the Sept 11 attacks

By CNN's European Political Editor Robin Oakley

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Compared with his passionate address to the Labour Party conference two days earlier in which he called for a new problem-solving world order, British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s statement to the second emergency session of the country's Parliament since September 11 was a sombre, practical affair.

Supplementing his statement with a document detailing the history of the terrorist initiatives of the prime suspect Osama bin Laden’s over a decade, Blair did not pretend that he could give MPs all the evidence that has convinced him and the U.S. administration that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were Al-Qaeda's work.

To do so, he argued, would endanger the intelligence sources responsible for providing the information. The MPs mostly accepted that argument.

But in this battle of belief the predilections of those being addressed and their intelligence 'pay grade' tend to make a difference.

VIDEO British PM Tony Blair's House of Commons statement (Part 1) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Blair's HoC statement (Part 2) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MORE STORIES • Blair embarks on shuttle diplomacy   • CNN's Robin Oakley: Blair on the offensive   • Blair's full statement     RESOURCES No. 10 Downing's case against Osama bin Laden     AUDIO UK Prime Minister Tony Blair: "The attacks bear all the hallmarks of bin Laden" 1.76MB / 2 mins 43 secs WAV sound Fmr UK Prime Minister John Major: "Tentacles of terrorism spread everywhere" 468KB / 42 secs WAV sound

The ambassadors of Britain's fellow 18 Nato countries were impressed with the rather more detailed evidence revealed to them in Brussels on Tuesday by the U.S. State Department’s counter-terrorism chief, ambassador Frank Taylor, than previous meetings.

They immediately insisted they were convinced and invoked Article V of Nato’s Charter, formally declaring the September 11 attacks a strike on them all, with no ‘if’s and ‘buts’.

The ruling Taliban regime in Afghanistan can hardly expect to see the same evidence in quite the same way, encouraging some wavering Muslim governments to use the coalition line that “we can’t tell you everything because we must protect our sources” as proof that the allies do not yet have a dossier putting the issue beyond all doubt.

That is one reason for the latest hectic round of diplomacy by Blair and Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. defense secretary.

Rumsfeld is taking in Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, while Blair goes to Moscow and Islamabad.

The more evidence they can produce, they know, the wider they can build their coalition and the more extensive the military facilities they are likely to be granted by those reluctant to be accused of helping to unleash an assault on fellow Muslims.

One key late endorsement has been that of the Pakistan leadership, which has declared its belief that the evidence against bin Laden is “sufficient for an indictment.”

So far, what the U.S. and the UK have been able to put into the public domain is largely restricted to the historical dossier on bin Laden’s activities, although Blair did tell British MPs that three of the suspected hijackers on September 11 had direct links to Al-Qaeda.

He also said that bin Laden's key henchmen had been told to return to Afghanistan before September 11.

With coalition building and Muslim sensibilities in mind Blair’s statement once again balanced his warlike language against the Taliban with stress on humanitarian efforts.

The allies were working to ensure that the Afghan people, many of them facing starvation, did not suffer further by any military attack.

But he is still a stride ahead of the U.S. in his willingness to talk about replacing the Taliban regime, and not just about the bringing to justice of bin Laden and the destruction of the Al-Qaeda training camps.

What comes after the Taliban may well have been one of the subjects on the agenda in talks between Blair and Russian President Vladmir Putin in Moscow.

It is unlikely that he needed to reveal to Putin, a former KGB man, any dossier on bin Laden -- the Russian president had told NATO's Secretary-General George Robertson during a trip to Brussels this week that any further evidence against the prime suspect was unnecessary.

It is more likely that Blair will have been talking to Putin about the efforts of the ex-Soviet Central Asian Republics who are granting facilities to the anti-terrorist forces, and about what Russian intelligence can contribute to the anti-terror campaign.

One thing Blair does not seem keen to do at this stage is to encourage any idea that the anti-terrorist effort might be extended into direct action against Iraq.

The new Conservative opposition leader Iain Duncan-Smith, an ex-military man with links to some people in the Pentagon, raised the question in the Commons, that the aim was not just to find and bring to justice the perpetrators of the atrocity on September 11 but to exterminate terrorism, and that would bring countries like Iraq into the equation.

Blair contented himself with pointing to the joint UK-U.S. role in policing the skies above Iraq.