UN teams hunt Iraqi arms, war drums sound

2.30pm

BAGHDAD - UN arms inspectors hunted for banned weapons in Iraq on Saturday (Sunday NZT) but across the Middle East and Gulf region expectations of war grew, stoked by sombre messages coming from Washington and London.

Syria thundered a warning to the United States that it had no right to attack Iraq, and that its support for Israel was fuelling popular anger across the region. Iraqi officials said UN experts had pounced on 10 sites across the country, including an oil refinery south of Baghdad and a communications centre near the Iranian border.

Washington and London indicated that the prospect of a ground and air war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in early 2003 was now increasingly likely.

President George W Bush cancelled a trip to Africa at a few weeks' notice and the US military forged ahead with a buildup that could have more than 100,000 troops in the Gulf in weeks.

Washington has declared Iraq in "material breach" of a UN disarmament resolution for failing to disclose in a declaration suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes.

An Iraqi opposition leader said on Saturday he believed a US-led attack on Iraq would happen very soon.

Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, seen as the most pro-US group among Iraqi opposition factions, spoke in Turkey, which borders northern Iraq.

"If Turkey participates in a possible operation on Iraq, peace could be achieved faster due to its position in the UN and its relations with neighbouring countries," he said.

During a visit to Afghanistan the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, said his forces were ready for action right away.

"The job of the US military and our coalition partners is to be ready to do what our presidents ask...We will be ready to do that no matter what month it is," Myers said.

Western aircraft dropped leaflets over southern Iraq on Saturday advertising radio frequencies carrying appeals to Iraqi soldiers to desert, US central Command said.

A total of 240,000 leaflets were dropped.

Sirens rang out for the first time in a decade in Saudi Arabia as the kingdom tested its emergency warning system while in Qatar, delegates from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states met to set aside regional differences amid fears of war.

Several hundred people demonstrated outside the Qatari embassy in Egypt's capital protesting against the West's build-up to war and the US military presence in Arab states.

In Baghdad, Saddam met top advisers, according to the official news agency INA, which said they had discussed regional and international developments.

Iraqi newspapers taunted the United States and Britain. The daily owned by Saddam's eldest son Uday likened US and British leaders to ruthless Mongol conquerors.

In Damascus, Vice President Zuheir Masharqa accused Washington of double standards.

"The priorities of US policies clash with the interests and hopes of the region's people, increasing their outrage against US policies," Masharqa said.

"There is no justification allowing the US administration to rightfully launch a war against Iraq, no matter how numerous the pretexts are," Masharqa added.

"It is Israel that has a large arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, and it is Israel that represents the most dangerous core of terrorism in the region and the world."

Israel is widely believed to have 2-300 nuclear warheads.

US officials say there were now 60,000 US troops in the Gulf region, more than half of them Navy and Air Force, and some 50,000 US ground troops were being told this week to get ready to move to the Gulf.

According to a German government source, the United States has asked Germany to guard US bases in the country at the end of January to allow more US troops to be moved to the Gulf.

In a Christmas message to British armed forces, Prime Minister Tony Blair told troops to prepare for war.

A British defence ministry source said London and Washington were planning a seaborne invasion of Iraq.

"Discussions on future amphibious operations are at an advanced stage," the source said, adding that Britain would commit its 3 Commando Brigade of Royal Marines to the assault.

In the 1991 Gulf War, US forces assembled an amphibious force in the Gulf, but never mounted an assault by sea. Instead, ground troops entered Iraq and Kuwait from Saudi Arabia by land.

Hans Blix, who heads the team of UN inspectors who returned to Iraq in November after a four-year hiatus, told the Security Council on Thursday Iraq's declaration was flawed.

Iraq submitted a 12,000-page dossier on December 7 under a tough new resolution aimed at disarming Baghdad of any weapons of mass destruction, but Blix said there was little new in it.

US officials offered more data to UN inspectors after Blix had urged Washington and London to share intelligence.

Officials said the information would involve fewer than six sites where US intelligence believed Iraq has "suspicious chemical weapons or elements of production".

The Security Council asked the arms inspectors on Friday to provide a detailed assessment of Iraq's arms declaration on January 9, in another effort to evaluate Baghdad's claim it no longer has weapons of mass destruction, diplomats said.

Niger, the third biggest uranium producer in the world, denied on Saturday US allegations that Iraq had attempted to procure uranium from the West African country.

"Uranium is not bread. It's a strategic product sold under certain rules," Niger's Minister for Mines and Energy Hassane Yari told reporters.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq