Saddam voices defiance at US threats

By ANTON FERREIRA in WASHINGTON

United States President George W. Bush was set today to rally Americans behind a possible war on Iraq, a war that Saddam Hussein said would be aimed at reducing his people to wretched slaves.

Bush, calling the Iraqi President a growing menace, scheduled a prime-time television address to outline his anti-Saddam case to a nation that has misgivings over the prospect of war.

"The use of force is not my first choice, it's my last," Bush said. "But my first choice as well is not to allow the world's worst leader to blackmail, to harm America with the world's worst weapons."

In Baghdad, Saddam said he had yielded to diplomatic pressure to allow United Nations arms inspectors back into Iraq to avert war, but the US had then moved the goalposts.

"They now say the inspections teams should not go into Iraq. This means they are lying in their claim and they do not want their lie to be quickly exposed."

The US and Britain are pushing for a tough UN Security Council resolution providing for intrusive inspections of Iraqi arms sites.

Saddam told a meeting attended by his sons Qusay and Uday and other military leaders that Iraq had not chosen this battle.

"The enemy is preparing itself to attack us ... and leave us as slaves without identity, honour or money.

"You are able to fight the enemy and make him unable to realise his targets, God willing."

The US Congress is expected to easily approve a measure within the next week to 10 days which would give Bush the authority to launch a war on Iraq, where his stated intention is "regime change".

But Democrats remain split on the issue. Some say Bush has failed to demonstrate that there is an immediate threat that must be answered by force.

Opinion polls show around 60 per cent of Americans support a war against Iraq, but doubts increase when they are asked to consider US casualties or a war without UN backing.

In New York yesterday, about 10,000 protesters gathered in Central Park to demonstrate against a possible US military strike.

The London-based Financial Times reported that two of Britain's most senior legal figures had warned Prime Minister Tony Blair that military action to force "regime change" would breach international law.

It said Attorney-General Lord Peter Goldsmith and Solicitor-General Harriet Harman had given Blair confidential advice that international law would allow military action in "limited circumstances" to support UN resolutions.

"But it rules out war to achieve regime change."

- REUTERS


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