INDEED I do - reluctantly - support sanctions against Iraq. So does the UN, which ordered them in the first place - something from which Peter Nielsen (You Say, January 2) cannot hide, try as he might.

If he has an alternative suggestion, I'm sure a grateful UN would be glad to hear it.

Neither can Mr Nielsen escape the fact that Saddam could have been selling oil to buy food and medicine long ago, since the sanctions allow for that.

Nor can Mr Nielsen escape the further fact that the sanctions would end tomorrow, if Saddam co-operated with the UN over his weapons of mass destruction - which he's already used on the very Iraqi citizens over whom Mr Nielsen sheds his easy crocodile tears.

All too often in this fallen world, the choices that have to be made lie between two evils. I wish there were some way of dealing with the grave danger posed by Saddam without letting him drag his own people further into misery.

However, that danger is all too real. The UN itself has decided that the danger cannot be allowed to continue unchecked, and the UN is right.

JULIAN THAKE,

Worcester.