The British prime minister's office in Downing Street, London, succumbed on Wednesday to all-party pressure and agreed an emergency recall of parliament to debate the Iraq crisis on Sept. 24.
Prime Minister Tony Blair will publish a dossier on President Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction at the same time, but members of the House of Commons and members of the House of Lords will not be given an opportunity to vote.
Government sources said there was no point in a vote at this stage since no specific action is being proposed by the UN or the government.
At the start of the Commons proceedings Blair will make a statement, followed by a full debate opened by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Strongly anti-war MPs might yet be able to use a procedural device to register their protest by voting against the adjournment of the house.
In a letter to the Speaker, Michael Martin, on Wednesday, Blair proposed a one-day debate, but an extra day may be set aside if the demand among MPs to speak requires it.
The Cabinet will meet the day before and a dossier seeking to expose the scale of the threat posed by Saddam will be published at the same time as the debate.
The government's preferred date for the recall, a Tuesday, falls in the middle of the Liberal Democrat party conference in Brighton.
In his letter to Martin, Blair said: "Parliament must and will be at the heart of the national debate on the issue of Iraq and weapons of mass destruction."
"I would like, with your permission, to recall parliament for a one-day debate on the adjournment, led by the foreign secretary, and preceded by a statement by me, during the week beginning September 23."
"By then, important discussions at the UN will have taken place and the government will be in a position to publish the dossier that is being prepared on what we know of the Iraqi regime and its WMD [weapons of mass destruction] program. This should allow parliament to debate the issue with the fullest possible knowledge."
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