GWENT MP Llew Smith headed demands today for Tony Blair to pull back from the brink of conflict with Iraq warning it could lead to nuclear war in the Middle East.

Other South Wales MPs backed the Blaenau Gwent MP who put down a Common's motion calling for a renewed effort to secure a diplomatic settlement.

The other MPs who backed Mr Smith included former Welsh minister Jon Owen Jones and Julie Morgan, wife of Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan.

The MPs warned Tony Blair they agreed with the next Archbishop of Canterbury that conflict initiated by the United States and backed by the UK "could escalate into a nuclear conflict involving Israel".

The MPs said: "Huge numbers of innocent civilians and military conscripts would die if nuclear weapons were exploded over or near densely populated cities in the Middle East."

Ten MPs, six of them Welsh, have so far signed the motion but others were expected to add their names today.

Dr Rowan Williams is currently Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Monmouth and will succeed Dr George Carey.