Bush to give UN ultimatum on Iraq

3.00pm

NEW YORK - US President George W. Bush will challenge the United Nations to a high-stakes choice between taking action to enforce its resolutions on Iraq or risking irrelevance, US officials said.

The blunt tone of the speech may leave some of the world leaders in Bush's audience "squirming in some of the seats," a senior administration official said today.

"The president believes that the case he's going to make is strong, and that there's a clear choice here," another administration official said.

The official said the United Nations would "risk irrelevance" if it failed to act. That could leave the door open to the United States acting on its own, but officials said it was unclear whether Bush would make that link explicit.

Bush is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly, where he will lay out his case for action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to an audience of world leaders who have been largely sceptical or opposed to a potential war against Iraq.

The White House said it would release a 22-page, point-by-point rundown of what it said were Iraq's violations of UN resolutions tomorrow.

Officials declined to say whether Bush would issue any sort of deadline or request a specific UN resolution, saying he still had options.

But they said the speech in part would amount to an indictment of Saddam for violating UN resolutions dating back to the 1991 Gulf War, after which Iraq promised to dismantle its weapons programs and submit to regular inspections.

"The world is a dangerous place, and the president is going to make clear that ... this regime (Saddam's) and this dictator is the most dangerous, and he'll lay out all the reasons," the official said.

A senior official today said Bush would cite a "decade of defiance" by Saddam. "The UN has been ignored, and that is a problem for the United Nations," the official said.

Bush remained willing to consult with other leaders on what action to take against Iraq, officials said.

Bush's UN speech will come a day after the president commemorated the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and vowed to prevail in the war on terrorism he launched in the wake of the attacks.

The United States has not uncovered any direct link between Iraq and the September 11 attacks in which 3,025 people died one year ago, but US officials have said they fear Baghdad might give weapons of mass destruction to extremists.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell today told a memorial service of the UN Security Council that the United States wanted to work with other nations to defeat terrorism.

"We are all in this together and so, on behalf of President Bush and the American people, I solemnly recommit the United States to our common fight against terrorism," Powell said.

"We join all members of the United Nations in the effort to build a world of peace, prosperity and freedom, where terrorism cannot thrive," he added.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, speaking at the same memorial service, said: "Today ... the importance of global legitimacy in the fight against terrorism has only grown. I call on the council to strive even harder to ensure that the struggle ahead wins the highest possible support."

Annan, like many other foreign leaders, has said it would be unwise to attack Iraq because it would raise tensions.

But the United States did win cautious support on Iraq from two European countries at the United Nations today.

"We believe it is a mistake some allies are doing - blaming the United States. We need to blame Iraq. Iraq is not respecting UN resolutions," Portuguese Foreign Minister Antonio Martins da Cruz said.

"For Portugal, it is very clear that all the options must be open," he added.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, whose country currently chairs the Security Council, said: "I do believe that we can reach, if not a consensus, at least a big majority in the Security Council on a resolution on Iraq."

"I think the United States has already been quite convincing (on Iraq) and they were convincing for many of their European allies," he added.

- REUTERS

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