Bush challenges UN to disarm Iraq

7.30am

NEW YORK - US President George W. Bush has warned the UN General Assembly that "action will be unavoidable" against Iraq unless the United Nations forced Baghdad to disarm.

Bush laid out a harsh indictment of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein this morning (NZT), saying he has engaged in a "decade of defiance" of post-Gulf War demands from the United Nations by developing weapons of mass destruction.

"Saddam Hussein's regime is a grave and gathering danger," he told a General Assembly that included many sceptical member nations.

Speaking from the green marble UN dais, he challenged the world body to act swiftly on a new Iraq resolution, or face the prospect of possible unilateral action by the United States.

"The Security Council resolutions will be enforced -- the just demands of peace and security will be met -- or action will be unavoidable," Bush said. "And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power."

Senior US officials said Washington wanted a short deadline for compliance, or Baghdad would face the consequences. A senior aide said Bush was by no means giving up his options for dealing with Iraq, including military force.

In contrast, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the General Assembly that only the United Nations could authorise the use of force in cases that go beyond straightforward self-defence.

Insisting Iraq's refusal to abide by previous resolutions threatened UN authority, Bush said the United States would work with other members of the UN Security Council on a new resolution.

"If Iraq's regime defies us again, the world must move deliberately and decisively to hold Iraq to account," Bush said. "The purposes of the United States should not be doubted."

The president's speech completed the steady expansion of his war on terrorism, first launched after the September 11 attacks against alleged mastermind Osama bin Laden, to a campaign to remove what he has called "tyrants" such as Saddam.

In a sign of further pressure on Baghdad, US military officials said its Central Command will move up to 600 members of its headquarters staff, which has responsibility for the Middle East, from Florida to Qatar for an exercise in November and is considering making that shift permanent.

Senior Bush aides made it clear Washington felt time was running out. "We don't need months. They know what they have to do, we know what they have to do," said a senior US official.

"He (Bush) is not giving up any of his options and he is in no way watering down his strong views about what must be done," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

While leaving little doubt the United States would respond on its own if necessary, Bush made it clear he would prefer an international route. "Our partnership of nations can meet the test before us, by making clear what we now expect of the Iraqi regime.

"If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately end all support for terrorism and act to suppress it, as all states are required to do by UN Security Council resolutions."

Iraq must end all support for terrorism and act to suppress it, cease persecution of its civilian population, release or account for all Gulf War personnel whose fate is still unknown, and end all illicit trade outside the oil-for-food programme.

"If all these steps are taken, it will signal a new openness and accountability in Iraq," Bush said.

The senior official said Secretary of State Colin Powell would work quickly on the wording of a new resolution with his counterparts among the permanent five members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, France, Russia and China. He is to meet them on Friday.

Aides predicted plenty of debate but that in the end, there would be a new resolution. Another official said any resolution on Iraq would go far beyond addressing the return of UN weapons inspectors and would demand compliance with a broad range of issues raised in Bush's speech.

Annan, in his opening remarks, urged Iraq to comply or else the Security Council must face its responsibility.

"I urge Iraq to comply with its obligations for the sake of its own people and for the sake of world order," he said.

Bush made no specific link between Iraq and the September 11 attacks but said that "our greatest fear is that terrorists will find a shortcut to their mad ambitions when an outlaw regime supplies them with the technologies to kill on a massive scale."

But he did say: "Iraq's government openly praised the attacks of September 11. And al Qaeda terrorists escaped from Afghanistan and are known to be in Iraq."

He argued Iraq represents an imminent threat. "We cannot stand by and do nothing while dangers gather."

Bush reeled off a litany of charges against Baghdad, including:

--It retains physical infrastructure needed to build a nuclear weapon; should Iraq acquire fissile material, it would be able to build a nuclear weapon within a year.

--Iraq likely maintains stockpiles of VX, mustard and other chemical agents, and is rebuilding and expanding facilities capable of producing chemical weapons.

--UN inspectors believe Iraq has produced two to four times the amount of biological agents it declared, and has failed to account for more than three metric tons of material that could be used to produce biological weapons.

--Iraq possesses a force of Scud-type missiles with ranges beyond the 150km permitted by the United Nations.

"If an emboldened regime were to supply these weapons to terrorist allies, then the attacks of September 11 would be a prelude to far greater horrors," he said.

Further reading
Feature: War with Iraq

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