Iraq avoids response to missile destruction order

Iraq avoided a direct response to an order from chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix to begin destroying missiles by March 1, saying all such issues could be resolved as part of ongoing cooperation.

Destruction of the Al-Samoud 2 missiles, which have a range that exceeds UN limits, would be a blow to Iraq as it prepares for a possible invasion by US forces.

"First of all, cooperation is going on and contacts are going on between the Iraqi athorities and the inspection teams," Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told reporters on Saturday on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

"We think all pending issues can be solved between the two parties without any pressure being exacted on them by certain powers," he said in his first reaction to the Blix deadline.

Sabri declined to comment in any detail after Blix ordered Iraq on Friday to begin destroying by March 1 dozens of missiles and warheads, their engines and launchers. It is a key test of Iraq's willingness to comply with UN disarmament demands.

If it does not destroy them, the United States and Britain could use this as proof that Iraq is not cooperating with the United Nations and that war is justified.

"The appropriate arrangements should be made so that the destruction process can commence by March 1, 2003," Blix said in a four-page letter to Amir al-Saadi, a senior adviser to President Saddam Hussein.

The letter, distributed to Security Council members, said an expert panel Blix organised had concluded that the Al-Samoud 2 missiles exceeded by 33km the 150-km range limit set by the UN Security Council in a 1991 resolution.

Sabri said he expected to win widespread support from among the 113 other members of the Non-Aligned Movement, which also includes Iran and North Korea - the two other nations bracketed with Iraq by US President George W Bush as an "axis of evil".

"We expect a strong position rejecting colonial war policies by Washington and calling for peace," Sabri said.

Blix did not say how long Iraq could have to destroy the equipment. But the deadline Blix gave would allow him to tell the Security Council in a written report due on March 1 whether Iraq had complied.

Baghdad's response will have an impact on a resolution the United States and Britain are seeking to authorise military action against Iraq.

- REUTERS