WASHINGTON – As the U.S. Senate prepared to vote on a resolution to authorize U.S. military action against Iraq, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine announced Thursday she would support the measure. Collins, who had been publicly undecided, said she was persuaded ultimately by an extensive recent conversation with Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said that a credible threat of the use of force was necessary to effectively disarm Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

“In my view, there are times in dealing with a tyrant when the best – indeed, perhaps the only – chance to avoid war is to express in unmistakable terms your willingness to wage it. And this, Mr. President, is one of those times,” Collins said in a prepared statement.

Collins highlighted the catastrophic risks she believes lie before the United States if action isn’t taken against Iraq.

The threat is “clear and chilling,” she said. “While none of us can predict for certain whether or when Saddam would strike, there are far too many warning signs in his past behavior and present undertakings,” Collins said. “His cold-blooded willingness to use chemical weapons against his own people as well as his enemies, his aggressive invasion of two nations, his blatant defiance of international sanctions, his continued efforts to procure materials to build a nuclear bomb, and his determined progress in developing a better means of delivering chemical and biological weapons, all strongly suggest an intention and an ability to use these weapons.”

Collins, along with others in the Maine delegation, said she hopes military force will be the last resort in disarming Iraq. She said she wants disarmament, rather than regime change, to be the focus of U.S. policy toward Iraq.

Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe expressed her support for the resolution Wednesday.