January 30, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 26,1423

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WASHINGTON, Jan 29: US President George Bush on Tuesday promised to produce new evidence against Iraq in a bid to convince wary allies that Baghdad was flouting UN demands to disarm, earning a cautious welcome from Russia.

In his State of the Union address to Congress, Mr Bush also threatened to unleash the full force of the US military to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell is to go to the UN Security Council on Feb 5 to present “information and intelligence about Iraq’s illegal weapons programmes, its attempts to hide those weapons from inspectors and its links to terrorist groups”, the US president said.

The United States has been under growing international pressure to work through the United Nations and give weapons inspectors in Iraq more time to carry out their work before going to war.

Initial reaction to Mr Bush’s decision to return to the UN to strengthen its case against Iraq was positive, with Paris and Moscow saying they would give Washington a fair hearing.

“We are ready to listen and analyse attentively the additional information which the US Secretary of State plans to present before the UN Security Council,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Facing a drop in domestic support in part over concerns about a war, Bush nevertheless warned thousands of US troops massing in the Gulf that “crucial hours may lie ahead”.

“We will consult, but let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam Hussein does not disarm, for the safety of our people and the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him,” he said.

“If war is forced upon us, we will fight with the full force and might of the United States military — and we will prevail.”

President Bush insisted that he still hoped for a peaceful solution while branding President Saddam a dictator who oppressed his own people and threatened others.

“Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent,” he said. “If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, all recriminations would come to late.”

“Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not an option,” Bush said.

REACTION: Russia continued to push for a diplomatic solution to the standoff, a day after hinting that its patience was running out with its Soviet-era ally and that it could toughen its stance if Iraq did not cooperate with the UN.

“We have to do everything possible to avoid a war,” Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said while talking to reporters in Moscow.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told German weekly Die Zeit that the threat of force was more effective in persuading Saddam Hussein to disarm than the use of force, while conceding that the threat “has influenced the behaviour of the Iraqi government”.

France welcomed Mr Bush’s call for the Security Council meeting, after earlier challenging the United States to give the UN the intelligence US says it had to back up allegations against Saddam.

“I welcome this American decision. It’s been several weeks that we have been asking all of those who have particular information” to share it with UN weapons inspectors, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told RTL radio in Paris.

Germany, which along with France has spearheaded European opposition to a solo US strike on Iraq, also welcomed the announcement, with Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer again insisting that any decision on the use of force should be made through the Security Council, where Berlin has recently gained a seat.

The EU’s foreign policy official, Mr Javier Solana, echoed that the top UN body was the forum for decision-making on Iraq “to avoid the catastrophe of a war”.

“The centre of gravity should continue to be the Security Council,” Solana said.

But Mr Bush’s address hit world stock markets and prompted a spike in oil prices, with investors fearing an armed conflict was becoming increasingly likely and fleeing the dollar.

The UN World Food Programme said in Amman it was stocking up food in countries neighbouring Iraq and was planning on having to feed up to 10 million people in the event of war.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, one of the staunchest supporters of the US campaign to disarm Iraq, welcomed President Bush’s vow to pursue the diplomatic route and present evidence against Saddam.

“That puts it right at the feet of the Security Council where the matter belongs,” he said.

Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Mr Mohamed ElBaradei, presented reports to the Security Council on Monday, saying that Iraq had not fully cooperated with inspections.

The newspaper of President Saddam’s elder son, Uday, described the report as “unfair”, warning that an “unpleasant surprise” awaited any invaders.

Egypt said the report did not justify a war, Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told the Arabic daily Al-Hayat, appealing for Western states to do more to help UN weapons inspectors complete their mission and for Iraq to cooperate.

The fresh United States initiative, aimed at overcoming opposition on the Security Council to military action, would set the stage for a possible rerun of the dramatic 1962 Cold War confrontation over the Cuban missile crisis.

Mr Powell has specifically referred to a Security Council debate in Oct 1962, when then US ambassador to the United Nations, Mr Adlai Stevenson, presented aerial photographs of Soviet missiles in Cuba — evidence that marked a turning point in the 13-day crisis.

STOCK MARKET: President Bush’s address hit world stock markets badly, sent oil prices surging and investors fleeing the dollar, fearful that an armed conflict was becoming increasingly likely. —AFP