WASHINGTON, Aug 4: As the Republican-run White House warns of possible armed action in Iraq, key Democrats sent mixed signals on Sunday over whether the time has come for a decisive military move.

“We have the strength to remove him. We can put together a plan to replace him with a unified Iraqi government. Let’s get on with it, and let’s give the president the authority to do what we elect commanders in chief to do,” Connecticut Democrat Joe Lieberman thundered on Fox television.

Lieberman, chairman of the Senate’s governmental affairs committee and failed vice presidential candidate with Al Gore, said that “before this session of Congress recesses, (there) ought to be a congressional debate on whether or not to authorize the president, as commander-in-chief, to take military action to remove Saddam Hussein.

“I will support that resolution,” Lieberman said. “I will do anything I can to convince my colleagues to adopt it, because I feel it is so critical to our security.

Delaware Democratic Senator Joe Biden was clearly not in the same high gear.

“I think Saddam either has to be separated from his weapons or taken out of power,” said the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“We probably have some time before he is able to have ‘the bomb’ (and) I think the case can be made that there is a lot more to do” before any military action, Biden said on CBS television.

Biden said UN inspectors should go to Iraq inspect, not negotiate.

“I think it’s important that we have real inspections .. even if (Saddam) just rejects it” Biden said, adding that ultimately that could help rally needed and currently lacking international support for allied action against Baghdad.

“This is very difficult to do all by yourself” Biden said in reference not to the military operation as such but to the follow-up that could involve peacekeeping.

Biden said he believed there would be military action against Baghdad, but that the question was when and with whom.

“I don’t think this is the time for the president (Bush) to set any deadlines. ... We’ve got to make sure we’ve got those” airbases in the region, Biden said.

“Big nations can’t bluff. We have to do this and do it right. Getting the French, getting the Russians on board ... there’s ways to do that, “ Biden said, warning: “This is a bad guy. This is guy who’s an extreme danger to the world.”

Opposition Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi charged that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein soon would use weapons of mass destruction.

“Saddam has advanced chemical weapons, he has advanced biological weapons, and he has produced and engineered biological weapons which contain a combination of viruses such as smallpox and ebola.—AFP