US, UK Have 'Total Determination' over Iraq: Blair

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, September 09, 2002

US, UK Have 'Total Determination' over Iraq: Blair

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British Prime Minister Tony Blair returned Sunday from a meeting with US president George W Bush on taking action over Iraq, saying they had "total determination" to deal with Iraq but wanted broadest international support.

"We have a total determination to deal with this issue. But we do want to deal with it on the basis of the broadest possible international support," Blair was quoted by BBC as saying.

The prime minister said: "I think what people have been worried about is: are we simply going to go off without any consultation or discussion with allies? That is not the case."

Blair said he and President Bush had developed a "shared strategy" based on a determination that the country's weapons of mass destruction must be destroyed.

An official said the prime minister is to brief senior members of parliament over the coming weeks on plans to stop Iraq developing weapons of mass destruction.

The official said Blair will use a speech to the Trades Union Congress on Tuesday to tell TUC that the United Nations was the right place to deal with the issue "but it has to address the issue."

Many Labor politicians are yet to be convinced of the case for military action. "We need clearly to have far greater evidence in relation to the existing threat," said Labor MP Donald Anderson, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

His concern was echoed by ex-foreign office minister Tony Lloydwho said that any decisions had to be taken by parliament.

"I think we are a long way from being convinced, not just me and not just my parliamentary colleagues, but millions of people in Britain, for the reason that the dossier that we were promised is not yet with us," he said.

Blair will also face a rough ride on the issue at the TUC conference, which opens in Blackpool on Monday. The two rail unions, Aslef and the RMT, have tabled a motion to oppose action in Iraq.

US, Britain to seek broad international support on Iraq

Blair said Saturday his country and the United States will seek "the broadest possible international support" in dealing with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as he ended a three-hour consultation with US President George W. Bush at Camp David.

Speaking to reporters at the Andrews Air Force Base before returning home, Blair said, "People should have confidence that we will approach this issue in a sensible and measured way. We will do it on the basis of the broadest possible international support."

"The Iraqi regime has chemical, biological, potentially nuclear weapons capability," Blair said. "The threat is real. It's important for us to deal with it as swiftly as we possibly can now."

Before their meeting at Camp David, Both Blair and Bush cited areport indicating possible nuclear construction by Iraq, although a spokesman for the international agency in charge of nuclear inspection said no conclusions could be drawn from the report.

"I don't know what more evidence we need" to indicate the Iraqipresident's attempt to develop weapons of mass destruction, Bush told reporters.

Blair said, "We only need to look at the report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to realize what has beengoing on at a former nuclear weapon site."

The New York Times reported Friday that a team of United Nations weapons inspectors, who were studying satellite photography, have identified several nuclear-related sites in Iraqwhere new construction or other unexplained changes have occurred since the last international inspections nearly 4 years ago.

Mark Gwozdecky, a spokesman for the IAEA in Vienna, Austria, said on Saturday that "there is no new information about any Iraqinuclear activity."

He said those photos may be meaningless. "Until we get inspectors on the ground, we can't draw any conclusion about whether they are in compliance with the (United Nations) Security Council resolutions with regard to nuclear activities."

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