SOLDIERS and airmen from across the North-East were heading for the Middle East last night as the days count down to conflict with Iraq.

Hours before the Government announced that it was dispatching 100 aircraft to the Gulf, ground crew were preparing the Tornado F3 fighters at RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire.

Aircrew have been practising for this moment for weeks. When the order came, they were ready, each plane taxi-ing to the runway for take-off, then soaring away in pairs.

There were emotional scenes elsewhere as the first UK based soldiers left their barracks in Catterick en route for the Middle East.

Members of the 1st Battalion Queen's Dragoon Guards were driven away by coach.

Trooper Brian Nordstrom, from Sunderland, spoke for many when he said: "We can only expect the worst and hope for the best."

As the armed forces made ready, Prime Minister Tony Blair was back in the North-East facing his critics. Mr Blair addressed a hostile audience at the Baltic Arts Centre, Gateshead, in a BBC2 Newsnight special.

Mr Blair accepted that unless there was a new United Nations Security Council resolution specifically authorising military action, there would be strong public opposition to conflict. "If there were a second UN resolution, then I think people would be behind me," he said. "I think if there is not, then there is a lot of persuading to do."

However, he believed that a second resolution would be secured. The only remaining differences between Britain and France - which has previously indicated that it might use its veto to block a resolution - boiled down to timing, said Mr Blair.

During the programme, Ifty Khan, 36, a Muslim from Newcastle, accused Mr Blair of pandering to the US, branding him "The Right Honourable Member for Texas North" and "Vice-President Blair".

Mr Khan asked the Prime Minister why the US had not shared its intelligence with the UN inspectors on the ground, regarding Saddam Hussein hiding evidence of his weapons of mass destruction.

Speaking after the filming, Mr Khan said the PM had dodged his question. "I don't think it is fair to call Mr Blair a poodle - dogs are reliable and trustworthy animals," he said. "He didn't answer my question - he just waffled."

Meanwhile, weapons inspectors issued Saddam Hussein with a grim warning that a ''drastic" change in his conduct was needed.

After briefing Mr Blair at Downing Street, chief UN inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said they needed ''100 per cent co-operation'' from the Iraqis if there was to be a peaceful resolution to the current crisis.