Saudis offer bases for war

WASHINGTON - The United States and Saudi Arabia have reached new agreements on expanded use of Saudi military facilities in any war against Iraq, the Washington Post reports, citing senior US officials and diplomatic sources.

The newspaper said the co-operation included full use of the air command and control centre at Prince Sultan Air Base, southeast of Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

In addition, the agreements would allow the United States to fly refuelling aircraft, surveillance planes and battlefield radar aircraft from Saudi airfields, the newspaper said.

The United States also would be allowed to base fighter jets at Saudi airfields, according to the Post.

The newspaper quoted a source as saying that the two countries had a tacit agreement to allow the United States to conduct bombing missions from Saudi Arabia in the days after an initial wave of US air attacks as long as no public announcement was made.

Saudi Arabia agreed last year to let the United States use a high-tech operations centre at Prince Sultan and to let American aircraft use its air bases for defence purposes only, US officials said in December.

However, the Post said the Saudis had been vague about the extent of their co-operation until the understanding reached with US officials in recent days.

At the United Nations Iraq has shown new signs of co-operating with UN inspectors by offering documents on past dangerous arms programmes, but President George W. Bush has said he expects no less than full disarmament.

Bush's spokesman said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would be a legitimate target in any war with Iraq.

US and British planes, keeping up an increasing series of attacks in "no-fly" zones in northern and southern Iraq, struck five missile sites, and the general who would command the US war if Bush ordered an invasion of Iraq arrived in the Gulf state of Qatar to visit the forward headquarters.

Washington's staunchest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, dismissed a Franco-German plan for peaceful disarmament of Iraq, and a US envoy said after two days of talks in Moscow that he had failed to secure Russian support for a UN draft resolution authorising use of force against Iraq.

Chief UN inspector Hans Blix said Iraq had sent him six letters over the past few days offering documents relating to weapons of mass destruction that it disposed of in 1991, including an R-400 bomb containing an unidentified liquid.

"There are some elements which are positive but they need to be explored further," he said while meeting his 16-member advisory board in preparation for a written progress report he will deliver by the weekend.

The inspectors have been charged with investigating Iraq's claims that it has eliminated all its weapons of mass destruction. Washington dismisses the claims as lies and is preparing for a possible invasion of Iraq on grounds it has failed to comply with UN demands.

Blix has set out a tough test for Saddam, ordering him to begin destroying dozens of al-Samoud 2 missiles, their warheads, engines and other components, by the weekend. UN arms experts say their range exceeds a 150km limit set in 1991 UN resolutions.

Blix said he had not yet received a response from the Iraqi Government, which has asked for more technical talks. But when asked whether the issue was still a matter of debate, Blix said, "Not between us and Iraq."

Saddam, however, has indicated in an interview with CBS television that he would refuse to demolish the missiles, according to excerpts read by anchor Dan Rather.

Russia's UN ambassador, Sergei Lavrov, said Iraq had to destroy whatever arms and equipment the inspectors asked it to. He said a Russian envoy, Yevgeny Primakov, had been assured this would be the case during a recent visit to Baghdad.

The US military said the strikes in Iraq included attacks on four battlefield rocket launchers that could be used against US and British troops. The United States and Britain have built up a force of about 200,000 troops in the region.

Army General Tommy Franks, head of the US Central Command, arrived in Qatar yesterday and was greeted by senior officers at Camp as Sayliyah, outside the capital city of Doha, where his mobile headquarters was set up six months ago.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said a nearly 30-year-old presidential ban on assassinating foreign leaders remained in place, but if war broke out Saddam and other Iraqi war leaders "cannot assume that they will be safe".

A retired American general who directed the 1991 Gulf War air campaign said the US strategy of sending in the ground forces after an air campaign lasting only a few days would lead to disaster. "Our strategy is wrong. It is risking more lives than necessary," said retired Air Force General Buster Glosson.

"How do you ethically defend the time we're taking to make a political decision [on using military force against Iraq] and then try to rush a military operation and finish it in a matter of days? Criminal," he told the American Enterprise Institute.

- REUTERS