US ready to attack Iraq alone, says Powell

12.30pm

DAVOS/BAGHDAD - The United States says it is ready to attack Iraq alone if allies peel away, and Britain says UN inspectors should have time, but not months, to decide if Baghdad is cooperating with them.

Kicking off a week that could hasten or delay a US-led war to disarm Iraq, US Secretary of State Colin Powell sought to win over a cagey Europe for a possible assault on Baghdad.

He mixed reassurances that the Bush administration would be patient and consult its allies with warnings that time was short and the United States would not wait for ever.

"Multilateralism cannot become an excuse for inaction," Powell told the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos.

"We are in no great rush to judgment today or tomorrow, but it is clear that time is running out."

The UN inspectors report to the Security Council later today on their two-month hunt in Iraq for any banned nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Baghdad denies having such arms.

King Abdullah of Iraq's neighbour Jordan hit a pessimistic note, saying in Davos it would take a miracle to find a diplomatic solution to avert a US-led war on Baghdad.

"Unfortunately I believe that we're now a bit too little, too late to see a way out, a diplomatic solution between Iraq and the international community," the king said from the same stage Powell had used hours earlier.

"Today I think the mechanisms are in place. I think it would be very difficult, it would take a miracle to find a dialogue and a peaceful solution out of the crisis."

UN chief arms inspector Hans Blix says Iraq has not filled holes in its arms declaration, is blocking confidential access to scientists and is balking at U-2 surveillance flights.

Blix has said Iraq meets queries about data on anthrax, deadly VX nerve gas and Scud missiles with blunt denials, not evidence or documents to account for any missing material.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, will tell the council his teams have not proved that Iraq is trying to develop atomic bombs, as Washington suspects.

"(ElBaradei's report) won't reveal any prohibited nuclear arms programme," said Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"If we were to find a smoking gun, we wouldn't wait for an update report. We'd go straight to the Security Council."

Iraq's influential newspaper Babel warned the United States that invading troops would go home in body bags, while ordinary Iraqis said they expected war whatever the inspectors say.

"Even after 100 years, the inspectors still won't be convinced that Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction. America wants war today, not tomorrow," Khazem Mansour, a 28-year-old engineer, said.

The US military said US and British warplanes bombed five Iraqi communications sites on Sunday in a "no-fly" zone in southern Iraq that they enforce. Iraq said civilian targets were hit but reported no casualties.

Teams from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and the IAEA searched more sites in Iraq yesterday.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said Iraqi non-cooperation would breach Resolution 1441 that gave Iraq's President Saddam Hussein a last chance to scrap any arms of mass destruction or face serious consequences.

"I don't believe it will take them months to find out whether he is cooperating or not, but they should have whatever time they need," Blair said on BBC television.

Britain has sent thousands of troops to join a US military buildup in the Gulf, but many of its European partners and other nations around the world want more time for UN inspections.

Blair is due to meet US President George W. Bush in Camp David on Friday to consider their next move in the crisis.

Powell promised to work "patiently and deliberately" with US friends and allies, but added: "Let the Iraqi regime have no doubt, however. If it does not disarm peacefully at this juncture, it will be disarmed at the end of the road."

"We will not shrink from war if that is the only way to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. We continue to reserve our sovereign right to take military action against Iraq alone or in a coalition of the willing," Powell said.

He said Iraq had "clear ties to terrorist groups including al Qaeda" and had made no strategic decision to obey last November's UN disarmament resolution.

The United States has provided no evidence for its assertion that Iraq has links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, which it blames for the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities.

Washington is facing opposition at home and abroad to a swift unilateral move against Iraq.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq