PM rules out taking part in US action against Iraq

6.00pm

NZPA - New Zealand does not favour United States-led military action against Iraq and will not be part of it, Prime Minister Helen Clark said today.

An unnamed former army officer yesterday suggested New Zealand soldiers in Tampa, Florida, could be involved in preparations for a US attack, but this has been denied by the Defence Force.

Miss Clark told reporters it was not New Zealand policy to be involved in such action.

Soldiers in Tampa had been there from the time New Zealand offered to deploy the SAS in Afghanistan and "that's what they're working on".

New Zealand held the same position on Iraq as a range of other Western countries, she said.

"We'd prefer to see the Iraq issue handled multilaterally, through the United Nations, rather than unilaterally through a small subset of the United Nations," she said.

New Zealand would not participate in US military action against Iraq.

"We don't favour that, and we have ruled it out," she said.

Defence Force chief Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson today rejected that the soldiers were involved in planning to unseat Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The US Central Command headquarters are in Tampa.

The Defence Force will not reveal the ranks of the officers in Tampa, how long they have been there, or what they are doing there, other than that they are working alongside their counterparts from 38 other countries to help co-ordinate efforts in Afghanistan.

Speculation has been growing that an attack on Iraq, led by the US and Britain, is being planned for this year.

New Zealand sent 35 soldiers to Ontario, Canada, in June to participate in Coalition Interoperability Demonstration Borealis, which included soldiers from the US, Britain, Canada and Australia.

It involved tests for communications and computer network inter-operability, looking at whether New Zealand radios could pass secure voice communications to other nations.

Britain is expected to seek a United Nations mandate to invade Iraq, based on Saddam's defiance of UN Security Council resolutions for inspection of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Security Council resolutions can be enforced through military action if necessary.

In the past New Zealand has supported military action against Iraq.

- NZPA

Feature: Iraq

UNSCOM

Iraq Action Coalition (against Iraq sanctions

Arab net - Iraq resources

Iraq Oil-for-Food programme

Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq