We can help in UN action says PM

By JOHN ARMSTRONG political editor

The Prime Minister is willing to contribute New Zealand military personnel to any United Nations-mandated operation against Iraq.

It is the first time Helen Clark has mooted possible New Zealand involvement in a UN-sanctioned attempt to topple President Saddam Hussein or for any subsequent UN peacekeeping force in Iraq.

But she stressed that there was a great deal of international scepticism about the need for such intervention, which New Zealand shared.

"We haven't really heard anything new or convincing," Helen Clark said yesterday, referring to United States President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair stepping up their campaign to win international support for an attack.

They have cited a series of reports that they say show the Iraqi leader has accumulated weapons of mass destruction and now poses a "real threat".

Yesterday's Cabinet meeting reaffirmed New Zealand's opposition - before Foreign Minister Phil Goff's visit to New York and Washington this week - to any unilateral action by the US and Britain.

"We think decisions about Iraq should be taken at the UN level," Helen Clark said after the meeting.

"If the UN mandated action, we would endeavour to contribute in some way."

The United States and Britain claim to have sufficient evidence that Iraq is developing nuclear weapons to justify an attack.

That evidence includes a 1998 report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, a Vienna-based regulatory arm of the United Nations, which said Saddam Hussein could be six months away from developing nuclear weapons.

"If it was compelling in 1998, it should have been acted on then," Helen Clark said.

Mr Bush intends to put his case for action to the UN this week after the September 11 anniversary.

But Helen Clark cautioned that it would be unacceptable for certain countries to exploit any UN resolutions on Iraq to rationalise unilateral military action by themselves.

Further reading:
Feature: War with Iraq

Iraq links and resources