Human rights campaigner Milan Rai believes forbidden fruit, syringes, surgical gloves and colostomy bags are the best weapons to wield against Saddam Hussein.

Mr Rai has repeatedly risked jail by illegally smuggling into Iraq medical supplies banned under economic sanctions imposed on the country.

He has also imported Iraqi dates into Britain and sold them in front of the Houses of Parliament, flouting licence laws.

But he is prepared to sacrifice his own liberty to help the millions of Iraqis he believes are threatened by sanctions and the West's threats of military action.

Mr Rai, of Gensing Road, Hastings, is leading protests against possible war on Iraq as founder of Active Resistance against the Roots of War (Arrow) and last night was due to speak at a Question Time-style debate on Iraq at the Brighthelm Centre in North Road, Brighton.

He is also the author of War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons Against War, which has sold 20,000 copies and been translated into seven languages since publication last year.

Mr Rai, 37, believes the West should not only call off war but also the economic sanctions which have been in place since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.

He has visited Iraq four times since February 1998, touring hospitals and shelters to uncover the effects of sanctions on the Iraqi people.

Mr Rai said: "I felt I could not stand by while parents in Iraq were having to watch their children suffer because of sanctions."

He has also taken in illegal supplies on each of his trips, starting with £400-worth of children's vitamins in February 1998.

On subsequent visits he has taken in syringes, surgical gloves and colostomy bags and given Iraqi doctors journals telling of up-to-date medical advances.

He marked the tenth anniversary of the Gulf War two years ago by selling Iraqi dates to passers-by in Westminster.

He had brought the fruit back without securing an import licence.

Mr Rai feels strongly that economic sanctions are not harming the rich elite in Iraq but the poor, who are denied vital food and supplies.

At the Al Mansur Teaching Hospital he saw a two-week-old baby die due to a shortage of oxygen masks.

The chance of survival for children with leukaemia was lower than 20 per cent as vital medicines were unavailable.

Before sanctions, it was 98 per cent.

Mr Rai also discovered many fatal diseases in Iraq were caused by water-borne infections, thanks to the inability to fix water purification systems bombed during the Gulf War.

He called for the UN to continue weapons inspections and set Iraq strict disarmament tasks under military sanctions, rather than approve military strikes which would kill innocent people.

He said: "The UN charter says military action can only be taken if there is a threat to peace and non-violent means have been exhausted.

"There is no evidence Iraq is intending to use their weapons aggressively in the short or medium term."