Bush concerned about omissions in Iraq's declaration

10.00am

US President George W. Bush is "concerned about omissions" in Iraq's 12,000-page arms declaration, which US officials say fails to disclose Baghdad's suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes.

Bush met top aides on Wednesday (Thursday NZT) to discuss a likely announcement this week declaring Iraq in violation of a UN disarmament order.

The White House said Bush was "concerned about omissions" in Iraq's 12,000-page arms declaration. Washington has threatened to disarm Iraq by force if it does not come clean on its weapons.

But US officials said Bush would not cite a violation of the UN resolution as an immediate trigger for war.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was not optimistic that Iraq would co-operate with demands that it disarm but that the United States would work through the UN Security Council on deciding what to do over the next few weeks.

Powell's comments after a meeting with top European Union officials suggested the United States did not for the moment intend to take any unilateral steps based on its conclusion that there are problems and omissions in Iraq's declaration about its suspected weapons-of-mass-destruction programmes.

"Our analysis of the Iraqi declaration to this point ... shows problems with the declaration, gaps, omissions and all of this is troublesome," Powell said at a news conference. "(From) my conversations with other permanent members of the Security Council, I sense that they also see deficiencies.

"We are not encouraged that they (the Iraqis) have gotten the message or will co-operate based on what we have seen so far in the declaration but we will stay within the UN process ... and we will share our analysis of declaration with other members of the council and discuss how to move forward in the weeks ahead," he added.

Britain's first response to Iraq's mammoth weapons declaration was withering. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said if Saddam wanted to stand by his "obvious falsehood" over arms, he will have spurned an opportunity to avoid war.

"There are some obvious omissions," Straw said in a statement about the 12,000-page document.

He said Iraq had failed to account for weapons programmes listed in the final report of UN weapons inspectors after they left Iraq in 1998.

"It seems that Saddam Hussein has decided to continue the pretence that Iraq has had no WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programme since UNSCOM (inspectors) left in 1998. This will fool nobody," Straw added.

Warplanes from a US-British operation patrolling southern Iraq fired on air defences, meanwhile, after Iraqi forces moved a mobile radar system into a "no-fly" zone, the US military said.

It was the fourth attack in five days on Iraqi air defence sites by planes monitoring the zone and coincided with a US military build-up in the region in case of possible war.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his country aligned with the United States against Iraq, said there was widespread scepticism about Iraq's dossier on its weapons but insisted moves to gear up for war were just contingency plans.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the declaration had "obvious omissions" and President Saddam Hussein's "pretence" Iraq had no banned weapons would "fool nobody."

A UN Security Council resolution adopted last month gave Iraq a last chance to come clean on its weapons programmes or face "serious consequences" -- diplomatic language for war.

Baghdad, which denies having any nuclear, biological or chemical arms, presented the declaration on its arms programmes to the United Nations earlier this month.

US and UN diplomats have said a preliminary review suggested Iraq had failed to account for chemical and biological agents and did not explain why it has allegedly sought nuclear technology in recent years.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the United States would have a formal response to the declaration soon.

"The president is concerned about omissions in the declaration and about problems in the declaration," he added.

Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix is due to make a presentation on the Iraqi declaration to the UN Security Council Thursday.

Powell said he expected a final verdict on the dossier after Blix had spoken.

In Britain, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon confirmed the country was preparing for possible war, but stressed conflict was neither imminent nor inevitable.

British troops are expected to play a key role in any US-led military action.

A shipping source said the Ministry of Defence had placed its first order Wednesday for a large merchant ship to carry heavy armour and military supplies to the Gulf ahead of a possible strike.

The government has told troops, reservists and arms manufacturers to gear up for a possible war.

"What we are doing is preparing in the event of military action being necessary," Hoon told BBC Radio. "But I want to emphasise that no decision has been taken to launch military action."

Blair said Saddam could still avoid war. "This is a contingency deployment. We want the inspectors to do their work, we want Saddam to comply with the UN resolutions. We use force where there is a breach of that mandate," he said.

In Iraq, UN inspectors, starting the fourth week of their hunt for Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction, searched at least nine sites Wednesday.

More than 100 experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission are in Iraq.

The inspectors returned earlier this month following a four-year absence.

But IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei said he had no proof Iraq had tried to build a forbidden weapons programme in the intervening period.

"No evidence has surfaced so far that facilities have been changed since 1998," ElBaradei said in remarks published in the Egyptian daily al-Ahram Wednesday.

But he added: "We have to be certain. Inspections are still in their initial stage."

Missile experts visited a Baghdad water facility and a launch pad north of the city Wednesday, while chemical experts headed for a paint factory to the south, Iraqi officials said.

Biological experts checked the biology department at a university in Mosul, some 250 miles north of Baghdad.

IAEA inspectors went to the Engineering Industries Institute and al-Fida Company at Dora, just south of the capital. Another IAEA team visited the Saddam Dam near Mosul.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq