ROME, Oct 21: Nobel peace prize laureates meeting in Rome on Monday delivered a resounding “No” to war with Iraq and gave their full backing to the need for UN-brokered diplomacy to avoid a conflict.

In a joint statement at the end of the third annual forum of Nobel peace laureates, participants including former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev (a winner in 1990) and former Polish president Lech Walesa (1983) said recourse to arms as a way of settling problems between states was unacceptable.

“I believe that now we can be more optimistic regarding Iraq,” Gorbachev told reporters before leaving for Moscow.

“The United States has in fact accepted a plan for a double resolution, which will allow UN inspectors to verify the destruction of weapons of mass destruction and therefore to present their report to the Security Council.”

Other prize winners attending included Britain’s Joseph Rotblat (1995), Betty Williams (1976) of Northern Ireland, Adolfo Perez Esquivel (1980) of Argentina and Guatemala’s Rigoberta Menchu (1992).

“The real problem today is not that Iraq possesses nuclear weapons, but that Bush’s America does not exclude the possibility of using them first — even as a response to a conventional weapons attack,” said Rotblat, a scientist who was awarded the Nobel for his anti-nuclear work.

Other main points of the conference’s declaration covered the importance of disarmament work; the war on terrorism and its potential risk of curtailing civil rights; and the search for peace in the Middle East.

The document will be sent to world leaders including US President George W. Bush, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.—AFP