US and Britain cite evidence of Iraqi nuclear-threat

The United States and Britain claim to have sufficient evidence that Iraq is developing nuclear weapons to justify action against Saddam Hussein.

Meeting at the weekend, US President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair stepped up their campaign to win international support for an attack.

They cited a series of reports which they said showed the Iraqi leader had accumulated weapons of mass destruction and now posed a "real threat".

Mr Bush intends to put his case for action to the United Nations this week after the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The evidence released so far includes:

* An International Atomic Energy Agency report that said satellite photos of Iraq had identified new construction at several sites linked in the past to Baghdad's development of nuclear weapons.

* A 1998 report from the agency, a Vienna-based regulatory arm of the United Nations, that said Saddam could be six months away from developing nuclear weapons.

* US officials also claim that in the past 14 months Iraq has mounted a global search for materials to make a nuclear bomb.

They say Iraq had attempted to buy thousands of special aluminium tubes to be used as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium.

"I don't know what more evidence we need," said Mr Bush, calling Saddam a "tyrant".

"This man is a man who said he was going to get rid of weapons of mass destruction, and for 11 long years he has not fulfilled his promise."

In the continuing attempt to amass international support Mr Bush phoned the leaders of France, Russia, China, Australia and key UN Security Council members but got little encouragement for an attack on Baghdad.

In his address to the UN the day after the anniversary of the attack on New York and Washington, the President is expected to call for quick, tough action to disarm Iraq.

Britain's Prime Minister, emerging from the weekend's joint strategy session at the Camp David presidential retreat, said Saddam's accumulation of weapons of mass destruction posed a "real threat" to the entire world.

"How we deal with it is an open question, but we have to deal with it," Mr Blair said.

"The threat from Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction - chemical, biological, potentially nuclear weapons capability - that threat is real.

"We need only to look at the report from the International Atomic Energy Agency this morning, showing what has been going on at the former nuclear weapon sites to realise that."

But Baghdad, which denies developing weapons, accused Washington of lying and plotting to control Iraqi oil. Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said President Bush was cheating the world.

"There are continuous lies.

"We have nothing [to do] with the United States but it takes us for an enemy, it wants to control our country. It's a powerful nation that wants to control the oil in Iraq."

Few other allies support the US in direct action. Germany has rejected any military support for an attack on Iraq and France is keeping its options open.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had "deep doubts that there are grounds for the use of force in connection with Iraq".

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, in an apparent change of heart, told Mr Bush this weekend that he hoped the dispute over Iraq's weapons could be resolved without military action. If it came to an attack, it should be under UN auspices, not by the US and its allies.

Prime Minister Helen Clark, who supports UN pressure on Iraq but not an American-led strike, has not received a call from Mr Bush and says she does not expect one.

- AGENICES

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