October 6, 2002	Sunday	Rajab 28, 1423

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MANCHESTER, N.H., Oct 5: US President George W. Bush said on Saturday that war with Iraq may be unavoidable and that delay was not an option to keep a defiant Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from deploying weapons that could cause “massive and sudden horror” for America.

“There’s no negotiations. There’s nothing to talk about. We don’t want you to have weapons of mass destruction. ... Now you’ve got to show the world you don’t have them,” Bush said of Saddam at a ceremony in Manchester, New Hampshire, honouring law enforcement officers and members of the National Guard.

“We must not ignore reality. We must do everything we can to disarm this man before he hurts one single American,” Bush told hundreds of flag-waving supporters in a preview of a prime-time television speech next week in which he will explain to the American people and the US Congress why he thinks the United States should be prepared to take military action.

ARMS INSPECTORS: The first group of UN weapons inspectors is due to leave for Iraq on Oct 19, Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, told the Ria-Novosti news agency on Saturday.

“It is important that this departure goes ahead on the scheduled date,” he added.

While the five veto-wielding permanent members of the United Nations Security Council are unable to reach agreement over how to deal with Iraq, the UN chief arms inspector Hans Blix has been forced to delay the return of his disarmament inspectors.

Having said they would be sent back in mid-October, Blix refused to give a firm date after his meeting with the Security Council on Thursday, saying only that he hoped it “would not be a long delay. We are ready to go at the earliest practical opportunity.”

Washington and London want to send Blix to Iraq with a tough new mandate, backed by the threat of immediate military action if Iraq refuses to cooperate with his inspection teams.

Ivanov reiterated that Russia believed it was “extremely important that the inspectors return as soon as possible”.

He said Thursday’s UN Security Council meeting and the comments made by arms inspectors and officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency showed there were “no obstacles preventing their prompt return.”—Reuters/AFP