US case for war yet to hit home

NEW YORK - Despite a dramatic presentation by Secretary of State Colin Powell of Iraqi attempts to thwart United Nations inspections, key Security Council members did not budge from their opposition to war.

Although nearly every council member agreed during Powell's electric 80-minute address yesterday that Saddam Hussein's Government fell far short of compliance, few made the leap to suggesting Iraq presented a big enough threat to warrant war.

The next step is a trip to Baghdad this weekend by top UN disarmament officials, chief UN inspector Hans Blix and his colleague, Mohamed ElBaradei, in charge of nuclear arms, after which they will address the Security Council on February 14.

The US, which has amassed troops in the Gulf region poised for an invasion, hopes their reports will convince sceptics that further inspections are useless.

But France, China and Russia, who have veto power in the 15-member council, maintained past positions that arms inspectors needed more time. So did six other council members.

"We need to give that inspection system a last chance, maybe one, maybe two, over a couple of weeks," Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham said.

Britain called the evidence "powerful". Spain said it was "compelling". Australia's foreign minister, noting that his country had provided some of the evidence Powell used, said the speech showed a "deeply disturbing pattern of deceit" by Saddam.

Italy and the Netherlands also lauded Powell, and Israel's Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had "laid bare the true nature of Saddam Hussein's regime and ... exposed the great dangers that emanate from this regime to the region and to the world".

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told Parliament that Powell's speech had deepened suspicions over Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction, and said Iraq holds the key to whether a peaceful solution can be reached.

The purpose of Powell's address, however, was to show that no matter how diligent inspectors were, Iraq was able to move equipment and bulldoze suspected sites in violation of a tough Security Council resolution adopted on November 8.

Iraq dismissed Powell's evidence as "cartoon films" with Amir al-Saadi, Saddam Hussein's scientific adviser, saying in Baghdad: "What we heard was for the general public and mainly the uninformed in order to influence their opinion and to commit aggression on Iraq."

Salem al-Kubaisi, head of the Arab and foreign relations committee in Iraq's national assembly, likened Powell's presentation to "Hollywood scenarios". He said: "This scenario, like previous scenarios, will fail."

Reaction elsewhere in the Arab world ranged from scorn and scepticism to claims that it was a prelude to fighting.

In South Korea, the fear of war was also emphasised, and the speech led foreign news on TV broadcasts yesterday morning.

"The United States is putting spurs to its move to start war against Iraq," said YTN, an all-news cable channel.

Powell pressed his case in private sessions with most of the 15 council members. Bush Administration officials said he had made headway with Chile and Angola in addition to Spain and Bulgaria, which were previously in the US camp along with staunch ally Britain.

But publicly, Mexico, Cameroon, Guinea, Pakistan as well as Syria joined the call for further inspections and hoped for a peaceful outcome.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, in his speech, threw out an array of proposals to enhance inspections such as tripling the number of arms experts and opening more regional offices.

But a senior US official scorned the French suggestions. "One has to consider whether any of these proposals would be able to find these things under those circumstances," he told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Bush Administration contends it does not need another Security Council resolution authorising force but diplomats say Washington would put forward a resolution with a deadline if it thought it had the votes.

"We clearly don't believe that a second resolution is necessary," National security adviser Condoleezza Rice told the ABC Nightline programme yesterday. "We understand that there are others who want to look at a second resolution, but it's important now that the international community digest what Colin Powell said."

Much of Powell's speech also was aimed at convincing a wary American public of the case for war.

But Powell was careful not to draw any direct link between Iraq and the Sept 11 attacks.

Senator Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Powell persuaded him.

"If I had this evidence, before a jury that was an unbiased jury, I could get a conviction," he told reporters.

The highly technical nature of the presentation means it will take some time for the audience to analyse and sift through it, said Anthony Cordesman, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"In the UN it is easy to preach to the converted, it is hard to convert the opposition, and people who don't want to really face these facts are not going to face them, at least initially."

Ten former communist countries - including seven preparing to join Nato - backed Washington's drive to disarm Iraq.

The foreign ministers of Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have released a statement offering to contribute to a coalition to enforce the disarmament of Iraq.

- AGENCIES

Herald feature: Iraq