US deaf to arms inspections pleas

NEW YORK - United Nations Security Council members, including Britain, tried to convince the United States yesterday to allow UN arms inspectors back into Iraq, but Bush Administration officials shrugged off the appeal.

The failure of the US and its close ally Britain to find unconventional weapons after 11 weeks of searching has developed into a political issue in both countries, with the Bush Administration defending intelligence used to justify the war.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has had to do the same as MPs press for an inquiry.

At issue is a global credibility problem, with accusations that the US fabricated evidence and Britain went along with it, unless a neutral body verifies any discovery of weapons.

In his last address to the 15-nation body before resigning at the end of this month, Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, said Saddam Hussein's Government might have destroyed or concealed weapons and now the truth could come out.

"There remain long lists of items unaccounted for, but it is not justified to jump to the conclusion that something exists just because it is unaccounted for," Blix said.

But he, as well as most council members, said whatever US-led teams found in Iraq should be verified by international experts. "I believe we all have to do everything possible and we have to do it together.

"However, I think anybody who functions under an occupation by a few foreign states cannot have the same credibility internationally as inspectors."

US Ambassador John Negroponte said there were no plans to let the UN inspectors back into Iraq.

"What we've said all along is that since March 17 or 18, the coalition has taken on responsibility for inspections and the search for the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq...... and I would expect that situation to continue for the foreseeable future."

Blix said he sympathised with the searches undertaken by US-led teams, saying UN inspectors had found few new weapons since 1994.

But also he wondered why, if Iraq really had no dangerous arms, Saddam put his country through "the misery of sanctions" for so many years.

In Iraq yesterday, deadly resistance continued against US forces in Fallujah, with one American soldier killed and five wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack.

And in Qatar, which hosted the US command centre for the war, Bush wrapped up a Middle East visit by defending the US reasoning for invading Iraq.

"We're on the look. We'll reveal the truth," Bush said, without promising weapons would be found. "But one thing is certain: no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime because the Iraqi regime is no more."

Bush took a quick tour of Baghdad yesterday from an altitude of 9500m. With four F-18 fighter jets as his escort, he surveyed the American-controlled capital from the safety of a window seat on Air Force One, which flew by at a ground speed of 751.5km/h.

It was a lot to soak up in a matter of seconds.

"He showed a real familiarity with the sights of Baghdad, the topography of Baghdad," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

He said Bush had not considered making a stop in Iraq during his weeklong trip, which included stops in neighbouring Jordan, as well as Egypt and Qatar.

Meanwhile, the first cracks within the British intelligence community over the Iraq war have emerged with claims that MI6 passed inadequately checked information to Downing St to bolster allegations on weapons of mass destruction.

Officers at MI5 and military intelligence claim MI6 was so eager to please the Government over Iraq, and to preserve its jealously guarded access to No 10, that "short cuts" were taken.

MI6 officers, it is claimed, often approached Downing St directly, without passing on information through the Joint Intelligence Committee.

Although MI6 was entitled to do so, it meant the information did not go through the JIC's "filtering" process.

MI6 officers now admit that most of their information came from Iraqi dissidents and Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress.


- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq