Inspectors set up new Iraq base as troops mass

12.30pm

BAGHDAD - UN arms inspectors set up a new base in northern Iraq on Saturday (Sunday NZT) to speed up the hunt for alleged banned weapons as more US and British troops prepared to join comrades already massed in the Gulf.

In a surge of military preparation after the New Year, Washington has ordered Marines and 11,000 infantry to the region, while a British newspaper said Britain would send more than 20,000 troops and mobilise 7,000 reservists next week.

The US military said aircraft taking part in US-British patrols over southern Iraq attacked three Iraqi military communication sites on Saturday.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri on Saturday accused the United States of trying to destabilise Iraq by supporting Iraqi exiles whom he described as "mercenaries and terrorists."

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Sabri said US plans to train exiled Iraqis to take part in a post-Saddam Hussein administration broke international laws.

"Bush's administration is supporting mercenaries and terrorists to destabilize the political situation and the social security in Iraq," said the letter published in Baghdad newspapers.

Washington has threatened war if Iraq does not give up alleged chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. But Saddam denies having such arms and says the UN inspections will expose American claims as lies.

A team of inspectors traveled to the city of Mosul, 230 miles north of Baghdad, to set up a regional office from where they would launch inspections in northern Iraq.

"This will help us expand and accelerate our inspections throughout the country, but particularly in the north," UN inspectors' spokesman Hiro Ueki told reporters.

UN inspectors must report their findings to the Security Council by January 27. Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix will make an interim report to the UN Security Council Thursday.

The council passed a resolution in November demanding Iraq give a full account of its weapons programs and cooperate with weapons inspectors, as required by resolutions stemming from the 1991 Gulf War, or face tough consequences.

Inspection teams visited at least six sites on Saturday, including a brewery that produces the spirit arak. After six weeks of searches, the experts have yet to disclose any evidence of banned weapons programs.

President Bush, addressing thousands of cheering soldiers in his home state of Texas on Friday, said a war against Iraq would be one of liberation, not conquest.

"Should Saddam seal his fate by refusing to disarm, by ignoring the opinion of the world, you'll be fighting not to conquer anybody but to liberate people," he told the troops.

Warplanes taking part in US-British patrols over southern Iraq dropped nearly a quarter of a million leaflets over southern Iraq on Saturday urging Iraqis to listen to radio broadcasts slamming Saddam, the US military said.

In a separate statement, the Florida-based US Central Command said allied aircraft used precision-guided weapons to strike three Iraqi communications sites near An Nasiriyah, about 170 miles southeast of Baghdad, "in response to Iraqi hostile acts." It did not specify the hostile acts.

Earlier, Iraq's armed forces said US and British warplanes hit civilian targets on Friday in a "no-fly zone" in southern Iraq, but the US Central Command said it had no information on such a strike. The US military has said allied aircraft hit military targets in Iraq on Wednesday and Thursday.

Seeking to head off a war in Iraq, Turkey's premier met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Saturday at the start of a tour of Middle East countries.

Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said he and Assad had discussed concrete steps to try to avoid war in their neighbour, but gave no details.

"We want to do everything we can. This means not saying 'We do not want war' and then sitting back and waiting for the war to break out," Gul told reporters in Damascus. "We still believe that this problem can be solved without war."

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who won re-election last year with a firm anti-war stance, was quoted on Saturday as reiterating Germany would not take part in any military action but declining to say how Berlin might vote in the UN Security Council on a war.

In an interview with Der Spiegel weekly, Schroeder denied that by leaving open how Germany might vote in the council, he was going back on his critical stance on any war against Iraq.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq