Powell to say Iraq in breach of UN motion

WASHINGTON - United States Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to say today that Iraq's weapons dossier contains omissions that amount to a violation of a United Nations disarmament resolution, US officials said.

They also said the US military had been told to notify up to 50,000 troops that they might be sent to the Gulf early next year as the US builds its forces in the region.

The White House said Powell would issue Washington's response to Iraq's 12,000-page arms disclosure, which US officials said had failed to disclose suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes as required.

Powell and the US ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, will announce the US position after chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix makes a presentation on the Iraqi declaration to the 15-member UN Security Council.

Powell will be in Washington and Negroponte in New York.

Diplomats said UN weapons inspectors were expected to tell the Security Council they had questions about gaps in Iraq's new arms declaration but to refrain from giving a negative assessment.

Blix, the chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, and Mohamed El Baradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, are scheduled to brief the council for the first time since Baghdad submitted its weapons document on December 7.

Powell said yesterday that he was not optimistic Iraq would co-operate with demands to disarm but the US would work through the Security Council on deciding what to do in the next few weeks.

"Our analysis of the Iraqi declaration to this point shows problems with ... gaps, omissions and all of this is troublesome," Powell said.

"Iraq was given an opportunity in UN Resolution 1441 to co-operate with the international community to stop deceiving the world with respect to its weapons of mass destruction.

"We are not encouraged that they have got the message or will co-operate based on what we have seen so far in the declaration, but we will stay within the UN process ... and we will share our analysis of the declaration with other members of the council and discuss how to move forward in the weeks ahead."

Under the Security Council resolution adopted last month, Iraq was given one last chance to disarm or face "serious consequences" widely expected to lead to war.

Iraq denies it has any banned weapons programmes.

The US is building a powerful military force in the Gulf in case President George W. Bush, who has said he would like to see Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ousted, decides to go to war.

Officials said Bush had made no final decision on the preliminary plan to send 50,000 troops to the region, but the United States was closely watching the UN arms inspections in Iraq.

As the White House declared its reservations, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said there was widespread scepticism about Iraq's weapons dossier.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the declaration had "obvious omissions" and Saddam's statement that Iraq had no banned weapons would not be believed. "This will fool nobody," Straw said.

Shipping sources said the British military had chartered a large vessel to carry heavy armour to the Gulf in the New Year and was looking for two more vessels.

In contrast to the hard-line comments of the US and Britain, France repeated its position that only the UN Security Council could decide what action to take if weapons inspectors in Iraq found Baghdad was in "material breach" of the UN resolution.

On international markets, oil and gold prices rose to fresh peaks amid war fears and stocks slumped on Wall St.

Warplanes from the US-British operation patrolling southern Iraq fired on air defences after Iraqi forces moved a mobile radar system into a "no-fly" zone.

In Iraq, the UN inspectors, starting the fourth week of their hunt for Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction, searched at least nine sites.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq