Blix battles to stay cool

By EVELYN LEOPOLD in NEW YORK

Iraq has told the United Nations it agrees "in principle" to destroy dozens of its missiles as demanded by chief UN inspector Hans Blix, who has voiced dismay in a crucial report that Baghdad has not made greater efforts to co-operate with inspectors.

At the same time, a UN Security Council meeting erupted into chaos with smaller nations such as Chile and Mexico demanding that the badly divided big powers - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - reach a common position.

"Nobody makes a step toward bridging the gap. We are all coming up with innovative ways to defend our own positions. There is no atmosphere of 'where do we go from here'," said Chilean envoy Christian Maquierira.

US and British envoys also moved to crush a possible compromise by objecting to a bid by Germany to ask Blix to publish a list of unresolved disarmament issues that could be used to measure Iraqi compliance and delay warfare.

The meeting, the council's first since the introduction of a US-British-Spanish resolution that would legitimise an invasion of Iraq, became so divisive that members did not agree whether Blix should address the council next Friday or Saturday.

On the missiles controversy, General Amir Al-Saadi, an adviser to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, sent a letter to Blix saying it accepted his order "in principle" to destroy Al-Samoud 2 rockets, the UN said.

Arms inspectors had determined the missiles exceeded the 150km range set in UN resolutions.

Diplomats who saw the letter said Baghdad had put no conditions on its acceptance, although it said Blix's decision was not justified. UN missiles experts, at present in Baghdad, have to talk further to Iraq to clarify the letter and make practical arrangements to scrap the missiles, their engines and warheads.

Blix, in a leaked draft of a report expected to reach council members shortly, said results of three months of inspections had been problematic.

"Iraq could have made greater efforts to find any remaining proscribed items or provide credible evidence showing the absence of such items," Blix wrote. "The results in terms of disarmament have been very limited so far."

His teams had not been able to conduct interviews with Iraqi scientists and others "without a tape recorder running or an Iraqi witness present".

He avoided any blunt language that could trigger war, and said Iraq belatedly had taken a number of steps in the past month that could account for some of its weapons of mass destruction programmes.

"It is hard to understand why a number of the measures which are now being taken could not have been initiated earlier," he said in the report.

Led by Chile, several Security Council members sharply criticised the big powers for not trying to reach a compromise and depending on smaller nations to make a crucial decision.

Pressure has been immense on six so-called "swing votes" of wavering council members - Chile, Mexico, Pakistan, Angola, Cameroon and Guinea.

The six are part of the 10 rotating council members elected for two-year terms. The other four are Spain and Bulgaria, who support the US and Britain, and Germany and Syria, who strongly oppose military action.

Germany helped to draft a French proposal, supported by Russia and China, that opposes a new resolution and would continue inspections for at least four more months.

"This divided council is, in fact, throwing the decision on the back of the elected members while the permanent members stick to their positions," said Chilean Ambassador Gabriel Valdes.



The French ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said the council discussions showed most of the members thought the time had not come to go to war.

"There are two propositions. One says ... we have to go to war. The other says no."


- REUTERS