February 24, 2003	Monday	Zul Hijjah 22, 1423

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KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23: Two-thirds of the world’s nations pressured Iraq on Sunday to defuse the Gulf time-bomb by “actively” cooperating with UN weapons inspectors, while warning the United States against a go-it-alone war.

The 114-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) thrashed out a resolution rejecting a US-led attack on Iraq without the go-ahead from the United Nations over four days of talks ahead of a summit on Monday.

The statement was finalised as US President George W. Bush gave the UN a new ultimatum: pass a resolution authorising force against Iraq within two months or America will attack.

“Time is short. And this is the chance for the Security Council to show its relevance, and I believe the Security Council will show its relevance because Saddam Hussein has not disarmed,” Bush said after talks with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.

NAM urged Iraq to step up cooperation with UN inspectors searching for banned weapons of mass destruction, warning a war would have “far reaching political, economic and humanitarian consequences for all countries of the world.”

“We reaffirm our commitment to exert our efforts to achieve a peaceful solution to the current situation,” says the resolution due to be adopted at the summit.

“We welcome and support all other efforts exerted to avert war against Iraq and call for the persistent continuation of such efforts based on multilateral as opposed to unilateral actions, and reaffirm the central role of the United Nations and the Security Council in maintaining international peace and security.”

Iraq is a NAM member and Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan, who arrived here on Sunday along with scores of world leaders, has promised to bring evidence in the form of documents and tapes to tell “the truth of what is happening in Iraq.”

The evidence will help “show the truth about Iraq’s cooperation with the UN disarmament inspectors, the truth about the harm done to Iraq and the unjust allegations,” Ramadan said before leaving for Malaysia.

NAM also leaned heavily on North Korea, another NAM member, to drop any plans to build nuclear weapons.

A draft resolution, which has not been finalised, rebuffs Pyongyang’s attempts to blame Washington for the crisis on the Korean peninsula, instead implicitly urging the isolated Stalinist state to reverse its decision to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Talks on the issue broke down Sunday and will resume Monday, delegates said.—AFP