Blair to Meet Bush Amid Europe's Iraq War Doubt

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, January 12, 2003

Blair to Meet Bush Amid Europe's Iraq War Doubt

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British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to meet President Bush after U.N. arms inspectors present a key report on Iraq late this month amid European anxiety to avoid any hasty U.S. move to war, sources said on Saturday.

While Blair has been Bush's staunchest ally on Iraq, the British premier has urged that U.N. inspectors searching for any Iraqi chemical, biological or nuclear weapons be given time to do their job.

The inspectors, who say they have found no "smoking gun" to challenge Iraq's denial it has any banned weapons, are to present a report to the U.N. Security Council on January 27. Blair is to hold talks with Bush on Iraq afterwards at the end of the month, sources familiar with U.S.-British planning said.

Top officials in Europe have spoken out against a rush to war on the basis of inconclusive weapons inspections, which resumed in late November after a four-year hiatus.

"Without proof, it would be very difficult to start a war," European Union foreign policy coordinator Javier Solana has said.

Blair, who the sources said could yet change the date of his trip to Washington, told his cabinet on Thursday that "weapons inspectors in Iraq must be given the time and space they need to do the job," his spokesman said.

"January 27th, whilst an important staging post, should not be regarded in any sense as a deadline."

The date had widely been seen as a possible showdown time for war, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered nearly 35,000 more troops on Friday to the Gulf as part of a build-up aiming to more than double the 60,000 U.S. troops now in the region.

BRITISH TASK FORCE

British newspapers reported on Saturday that Blair's trip to Washington was to underscore his message that the inspectors should be given "time and space" to deal with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

The Times and Guardian said Blair also intended to meet chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, who with Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the United Nations (news - web sites)' nuclear watchdog agency, is to present the report to the Council on Iraq.

Blair had a private dinner on Saturday in Hanover with German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose stark opposition to a U.S.-led war against Iraq angered Washington but helped him narrowly win reelection in September.

After Washington announced the dispatch of more troops to the Gulf, the flagship of Britain's navy, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, set sail on Saturday for possible war against Iraq, heading the largest British seaborne force since the 1982 Falklands War.

The Ark Royal will lead a fleet of 16 ships, with 5,000 sailors and 3,000 marines.

U.N. arms inspectors flew by helicopter to an oil facility west of Baghdad on Saturday, the second aerial inspection since they resumed work in Iraq on November 27 following a tough November 8 Security Council resolution requiring Baghdad to cooperate with them or face serious consequences. The inspectors also searched seven other sites, their visits including a trip to a university in the town of Tikrit, birthplace of Saddam and 125 miles north of Baghdad.

SKIRMISH IN CYBERSPACE

Bush has yet to decide on any invasion of Iraq, but the inspectors have urged the United States to provide more specific intelligence to help pinpoint any banned Iraqi weapons.

Detailing a U.S.- Iraqi skirmish in cyberspace, U.S. defense officials said the U.S. military had begun an e-mail campaign urging military and civilian leaders in Iraq to turn against Saddam and reveal the location of any banned weapons.

The e-mails in Arabic urge Iraqis not to follow orders to use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, to identify where they are located by signals or render the weapons ineffective.

The state-controlled e-mail service is available only to a small number of Iraqis, mainly government officials, senior public servants, academics and scientists. Iraqis began to receive the e-mails last week, visitors there said.

Iraqi authorities have blocked the e-mail service access in an apparent attempt to stop the messages from spreading inside the country, visitors said.

On the diplomatic front, Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul arrived in Saudi Arabia on Saturday for talks on the Iraq crisis. Saudi Arabia and Turkey have publicly opposed a war against Iraq and both have so far declined to grant Washington permission to use bases on their territory for military strikes.

In Vienna, OPEC producers prepared for emergency talks on Sunday that will decide how far to open the oil taps to prevent a price shock as war looms in Iraq.

Source: agencies

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