September 30, 2002	Monday	Rajab 22, 1423

BLACKPOOL, Sept 29: British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed confidence on Sunday that the UN Security Council would approve a tough new resolution on Iraq, despite the opposition of Baghdad, which has vowed to reject any new conditions on arms inspections.

But as he braced for a showdown with leftwingers at the annual conference of his ruling Labour Party, Blair signalled London might be prepared to see some watering down of the tough draft British and US diplomats have been trying — unsuccessfully — to sell in Paris and Moscow.

Russia still sees no need for any new resolution and wants the inspectors to go back to work as quickly as possible, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanonv insisted as Iraq prepared to hold talks on their return with UN weapons chief Hans Blix.

“I hope and believe we will get the resolution we want,” the British prime minister said in a BBC interview ahead of his party’s conference in this seaside resort.

But Blair said he did not rule out a compromise proposal put forward by French President Jacques Chirac for two separate Security Council resolutions, with only the second threatening the use of force.

“We can leave that open for the moment ... Let’s take it step by step,” he said.

“The most important thing, if we want to avoid conflict, is to maintain the maximum pressure on (President) Saddam (Hussein) and the Iraqi regime.”

The US draft, which British and US diplomats have so far failed to sell to Security Council doubters China, France and Russia, would give Iraq just seven days to declare all its weapons of mass destruction programmes and another 23 to cooperate fully with UN teams before facing military action.

Iraq has said it is prepared to give the UN inspectors unfettered access to go anywhere, but has made clear it will accept no new conditions on their mission.

“The position on the inspectors has been decided, and any new measure intended to harm Iraq is unacceptable,” Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said on Saturday.

With Washington still intent on imposing its will, the Un weapons chief headed to Vienna for meetings with Iraqi officials on the logistics of resuming the first arms checks since UN teams fled Baghdad in 1998 on the eve of US and British air strikes.

Accompanied by eight aides, including senior advisers on training, planning and legal matters, Blix intended to focus exclusively on practical details, his office said.

The weapons chief last met Iraqi officials on September 17, the day after Saddam agreed to allow the inspectors back, with the hope the new inspections would lead to the lifting of UN trade sanctions in place since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Blix said he hoped to have an advance party in Iraq on October 15, and intended to report back to the world body around October 3 on the upshot of his Vienna talks.

TO IRAN: Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, meanwhile, took Iraq’s campaign against the US war threats to its eastern neighbour Iran, with which it fought a costly 1980-1988 war.

But he appeared to hit a wall in his talks with his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi, who insisted it was up to Baghdad alone to stop a US attack.

“It is Iraq’s responsibility to prevent a conflict in the region by cooperating with the United Nations,” state radio quoted Kharazi as saying.

On his arrival here Saturday, Sabri labelled the United States and Israel the “real axis of evil” as he sought to play on Iranian fears that it may be the next target of US war plans.

Kuwaiti Defence Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak al-Sabah was expected to arrive in the Iranian capital later Sunday, but it appeared unlikely he would meet the foreign minister of the country whose invasion of the emirate led to the 1991 Gulf war.

Meanwhile, anti-war sentiment sparked protests in cities across the globe, including a huge rally in London, which organizers said drew 400,000 onto the streets, including MPs and public figures. Police were more conservative in their estimates, putting the turnout at 150,000.

In Rome, some 100,000 demonstrators protested Washington’s Iraq policy, according to organisers, challenging Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s support for US threats against Saddam.

Protests were also held in Sydney and in Denver, Colorado, outside a Republican fundraiser attended by Bush.

In Moscow, US envoy Marc Grossman met the Russian foreign minister, accompanied by British Foreign Office official Peter Ricketts.

Grossman gave no indication of whether his team had made progress in securing Russian backing for a Security Council resolution granting the United States the right to attack Iraq, but it appeared Russia was holding out.

France had already rebuffed Grossman’s efforts to gain support for the hardline draft on Friday. Bush stressed Saturday that the United States was united against Iraq.

“We’re moving toward a strong resolution authorizing the use of force, if necessary,” he said in a weekly radio address.—AFP