Sources insist there is no sense of triumphalism after PM faced down sceptics and lobbied in favour of UN resolution

David Cameron will chair an emergency cabinet meeting and make a rare Friday Commons statement as he builds on the first major foreign policy triumph of his premiership.

The prime minister, who spoke to Barack Obama on Thursday about the forthcoming military campaign, ripped up his diary and abandoned a trip outside London to help lead a highly complex operation.

British, US and French military aircraft are expected to fly the first missions to enforce the no-fly zone after Thursday night's vote at the UN in New York.

Government sources insisted that there is no sense of triumphalism in Downing Street after the prime minister faced down sceptics and lobbied in favour of a new UN security council resolution in a joint campaign with Nicolas Sarkozy.

"The prime minister is under no illusions about what military action will entail," one source said. "He did not enter lightly on a military course."

But the vote at the UN is one of the most significant moments since the prime minister entered Downing Street last year. It is likely to shape Cameron's approach to foreign policy.

Tories have drawn parallels with Tony Blair's success, in the face of deep scepticism in Washington, in persuading Bill Clinton to authorise the use of grounds troops in Kosovo in 1999. This helped shape Blair's doctrine of liberal interventionism.

Some Tories feared that Cameron was risking a great deal of capital by pressing ahead with his campaign for a no-fly zone in the face of opposition in Washington. Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, appeared to have the prime minister in mind when he warned of the dangers of "loose talk" about a no-fly zone. Some Tories warned that the prime minister was guilty of "shooting from the hip".

The unease voiced by Gates was shared in other capitals. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, was wary and made a strong intervention at an emergency EU summit on Libya last week to remove any reference to a no-fly zone. Germany abstained in the UN vote.

While the Gates intervention was seized on by critics, his remarks appeared to highlight the classic divisions that occur in Washington when military action beckons. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state who had always been more supportive of a no-fly zone, threw her weight behind the proposal on Wednesday after the Arab League backed it.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former foreign secretary who has called for Libyan rebels to be armed, welcomed the UN vote. He told the BBC: "I'm absolutely delighted. Without action of this kind, Benghazi would have been a bloodbath. By the standards of the last 20 years, this is a remarkable vote. This is a tremendous morale booster for Libyans, not just in Benghazi."

Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader who was a vocal opponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq after Blair failed to gain a second security council resolution, welcomed Cameron's success in securing a second resolution on Libya.

Campbell said: "This resolution has been a long time coming but it has enormous political weight and legitimacy because of the regional support for it from the Arab League. Gaddafi threatens a bloodbath of his own people. The duty under international law to protect the Libyans from him is paramount."