`We are doing what is right, for Britain, for Europe, for a world that must know that barbarity cannot be allowed to defeat justice. That is simply the right thing to do."
With those words Mr Tony Blair last night concluded an emotional television broadcast appealing for the British public's support for the NATO action over the crisis in Kosovo.
The Prime Minister's broadcast came after early polling signs that the British public disagrees with the ongoing air strikes against Serbia, and amid questioning of NATO's precise "war aims" by some elder statesmen and commentators.
Reminding his audience that the first World War began in Sarajevo, Mr Blair said they had only averted a war in Bosnia five years ago, again started by President Slobodan Milosevic, "by standing up to him".
Failure to act now, he said, would not see the conflict unleashed by Mr Milosevic stop: "We would have to deal with the consequences of spiralling conflict and hundreds of thousands of refugees."
In France, the Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, and President Jacques Chirac also defended the NATO action. "The choice
was not between peace or air strikes but between air strikes or a war later on that would be more far-reaching, more global and without doubt more deadly," Mr Chirac told a meeting of government officials in Paris.
But in southern Europe, support for NATO is less firm.
In Athens last night, between 6,000 and 10,000 protesters were involved in violent clashes outside the US embassy. "Americans - killers of peoples," chanted the mob as police were pelted. They in turn fired tear gas at people they described as left-wing sympathisers, together with a number of Serbs.
Earlier, the Greek government called for an immediate end to the military action against a backdrop of growing public, political and press outrage over the attacks.
"We believe that it is time to start talking again so that the problem can be solved politically and the bombing stops," the Foreign Minister, Mr George Papandreou, said. "Much depends on whether Milosevic is ready to return to the negotiating table."
Mr Papandreou said Athens was willing to use its traditionally warm relations with Serbia to restart talks.
The US-led attacks have been denounced as criminal by the entire political spectrum, as well as the Greek Orthodox Church.
In Rome, the lower house of parliament approved a government motion calling for an "immediate resumption of diplomatic initiatives" aimed at resolving the Kosovo crisis and halting the NATO bombing raids. In what was a de facto confidence vote on the handling by the centre-left Prime Minister, Mr Massimo d'Alema, of Italian involvement in the NATO raids, the house approved the motion by 318 votes to 188, with some opposition forces either abstaining or voting with the government.
Although the terms of the motion appear to undermine Italian support for the NATO military action, Mr d'Alema was keen to emphasise that the Italian government had no intention of breaking with its NATO allies.
He told the house: "This parliament unanimously condemns the politics of Milosevic and his repression of the civilian population of Kosovo, but it is also unanimous in calling for a peaceful solution. At this moment, however, Italy cannot go it alone, we can't walk off the pitch. If we were to walk away from NATO, we would lose all possibility of working for the return of dialogue for peace. Italy can't opt out on its own."