US says it is deadline time for Iraq to disarm

12pm

BAGHDAD - The United States warned it was deadline time for Iraq to disarm or face war as Baghdad said it was seriously considering UN demands to begin destroying its al-Samoud 2 missiles by March 1.

"We are reaching that point where serious consequences must flow," said US Secretary of State Colin Powell, using Washington's language for war as the missiles became a major test of Iraqi compliance with the United Nations.

Powell, a driving force behind a new US and British resolution on Iraq to be presented to the UN Security Council as early as Monday (Tuesday NZT), said it was clear Baghdad had breached UN demands to come clean over any weapons of mass destruction.

France, a veto-wielding member of the council, signalled the Americans and British faced a tough task in winning over the 15-nation panel.

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said France remained opposed to a new resolution for now because it believed UN weapons inspectors still needed time to do their work in Iraq.

"The inspectors confirm there is progress. That's why, in this context, we are opposed to a new resolution as the president said," he told Le Figaro newspaper.

In its first comment since chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix set the March 1 deadline on Friday, Iraq said it hoped to settle the missiles issue through "cooperation and agreement".

General Husam Mohammad Amin, head of Iraq's weapons monitoring commission, refused to answer direct questions on whether Baghdad would destroy the missiles.

"We are studying (Blix's letter) in depth and in a serious and comprehensive way," Amin told reporters in Baghdad.

Iraq test-fired a rocket engine at the Falluja site, some 70km west of Baghdad, in an attempt to show UN inspectors the al-Samoud 2 missile could not violate a 1991 range limit set by the United Nations.

Powell dropped heavy hints about Washington's timetable for war as he went on a diplomatic swing through Japan and China to drum up support, saying the United Nations should take vital decisions soon after an inspectors' report expected on March 7.

Powell told reporters in Tokyo he expected the UN Security Council to make a judgment on the new resolution being presented by the United States and Britain soon after the report.

"Time is drawing to a close when ... the Security Council must show its relevance by insisting that Iraq disarm or that Iraq be disarmed by a coalition of forces that will ... do it," he said.

The US military is anxious to act before April when temperatures in Iraq begin to soar and could make fighting tough for soldiers if they have to wear stifling protective suits and masks against the threat of chemical or biological weapons.

In Baghdad, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein remained defiant of US President George W. Bush's war threats

"The Iraqis are angered by the behaviour of their enemy that has not kept within the minimum of manhood and chivalry," Saddam told a Lebanese delegation.

Washington and London, rapidly building up some 250,000 troops in the Gulf region, have mounted a diplomatic drive to win over the 10 rotating members of the Security Council to back their resolution and persuade permanent members France, Russia and China not to veto it.

China, like France and Russia, says UN inspectors should be given more time in Iraq. But analysts said it could tacitly back Washington by abstaining from voting on what it views as a distant problem not worth jeopardising Sino-US relations over.

Syria, one of the 10 temporary Council members Washington must woo, said it had already turned down flat a request from Powell that it back the resolution, on grounds it would be exploited as a pretext to attack Iraq whatever it said.

Bush has said that if the United Nations is not prepared to act, the United States will lead what he calls a coalition of the willing to disarm Iraq.

Public opinion in Britain and many other countries is opposed to a war without UN authorisation.

Anti-war activists vowed to block all movement of US arms by rail between American bases in Italy and Italian dock workers pledged to stop handling US war cargo.

Some 30,000 people marched through the Moroccan capital Rabat to denounce US policy and at least 5000 through Moscow. Hundreds of Omanis, carrying Iraqi and Palestinian flags, protested in the capital Muscat.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Iraqi leaders not to misinterpret such protests as a licence to resist the United Nations.

"They have to destroy these weapons ... If they refuse to destroy them, the council will have to take a decision on that," he said.

Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, a Middle East expert and long-time friend of Saddam, met officials in Baghdad as part of a mission for President Vladimir Putin.

Russia, which is owed billions of dollars by Iraq and has signed valuable contracts to develop Iraqi oilfields, says it sees no need to use force against Baghdad.

A major element of Washington's diplomatic preparation for war has been to win Turkey's permission to use its bases as a launch pad and its border with Iraq as a gateway to invade.

Turkey, anxious to dampen Kurdish nationalism in Iraq that might stir up separatism in its own Kurdish south-east, says it will send troops into northern Iraq on the heels of an American force to prevent an independent Kurdish state emerging.

Kurds in northern Iraq reacted angrily to what appeared to be the terms of a near-complete US-Turkish agreement.

"If there's a forced incursion ... believe me there will be uncontrolled clashes," said a spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Party.

Iraq said US and British warplanes enforcing "no-fly zones" over the country hit civilian targets in the south but reported no casualties. The US military said it was unaware of any such attack.

Saudi Arabia raised the army's state of alert and started ordering gas masks for civilians. The kingdom is home to about 5000 US troops, but has yet to decide whether to allow US forces to attack Iraq from its territory without UN approval.

Instead, Kuwait is the main base for the planned thrust into southern Iraq. Kuwaiti authorities said on Sunday an Iraqi had been arrested on suspicion of spying on American forces.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said an Arab summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh next Saturday would be aimed at achieving a united stance to avoid a war against Iraq.

- REUTERS