MUNICH, Feb 3: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on Sunday renewed Russia’s support for the US-led war on terrorism, but said Russia was not prepared to extend the war to Iraq.

“No, we are not prepared to do that,” he told a news conference at the conclusion of a 43-nation international security conference in Munich, adding that “many European states stick to the same approach.”

The United States built an international alliance to respond to the Sept 11 attacks on New York and Washington, blamed on Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network.

But increasing signs from Washington that it wishes to extend that campaign beyond Afghanistan have been met with worry, if not flat out rejection from alliance partners. They have pushed for a United Nations mandate for any further military offensives.

While Russia considered the US-led war in Afghanistan legitimate, “any actions taken by the states and international organizations against terrorists, including the use of force, should be based on norms and principles of international law,” Ivanov told attendees.

But US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said the United States had the right to defend itself and did not need any international mandate following the September 11 attacks.

“I take strong exception to the view that we need a UN mandate to act. We were attacked... an attack on one of us (NATO members) is all the justification we need to take action to defend all of us,” he said.

Ivanov also said Sunday there was no proof that Iran was linked to terrorism, rejecting assertions by US President George W. Bush.

There was “not a single clue that Iran has implemented or has ties with any terrorist organizations,” the defense minister said after Bush accused Iran of belonging to an “axis of evil.”

The president has come in for strong international criticism for accusing Iran, as well as Iraq and North Korea of being an “axis of evil”.

Ivanov stated that Iran had in fact been fighting terrorism in Afghanistan for years when “the rest of the world did not want to see what the danger was in Afghanistan.”

“Iranians have risked their lives counter-attacking caravans transporting drugs from Afghanistan,” he said.

Ivanov warned however that the threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction — biological, chemical and nuclear — was real. Drug trafficking and smuggling of illegal immigrants were two main revenue sources for terrorism around the world, he said.

A large amount of the estimated seven billion dollars (8.1 billion euros) annually which gangs earned from smuggling immigrants went towards funding terrorism, Ivanov charged.

The minister drew clear parallels between the attacks last September and Russia’s war in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. “International terrorism in Chechnya has been backed from abroad... there is irrefutable evidence to that effect.”

“If those who blow up apartment houses in Moscow are declared freedom fighters while in other countries such persons are referred to as terrorists, one cannot even think of forging a united anti-terrorist front,” he said.—AFP