BUCHAREST, Nov 23: US President George W. Bush delivered a fresh warning on Saturday against Iraq and President Saddam Hussein, saying he was a threat to all free nations.

“By his search for terrible weapons, by his ties to terror groups, by his development of prohibited ballistic missiles, the dictator of Iraq threatens the security of every free nation, including the free nations of Europe,” Bush said during a visit to future NATO partner Romania.

“The United Nations Security Council, and now NATO have spoken with one voice: the Iraqi regime will completely disarm itself of weapons of mass murder, or we, the United States, will lead a coalition of willing nations and disarm that regime in the name of peace,” he told a crowd of thousands in Bucharest.

“The people of Romania understand that aggressive dictators cannot be appeased or ignored; they must always be opposed,” Bush added.

Bush visited Russia, Romania and Lithuania after a NATO summit in Prague, where leaders of the military alliance vowed to take “effective action” to secure Iraq’s “full and immediate compliance” with UN disarmament demands, but stopped short of endorsing military action.

The United States has left the door open to unilateral military action against Baghdad and has been sounding out its allies to find out if they are willing to join a coalition against Iraq.

Weapons inspections are to due resume in Iraq next week, four years after they were pulled out on the eve of massive US-British air strikes.

Iraq, which insists it no longer has weapons of mass destruction, pledged “full cooperation” during a visit to Baghdad earlier this week by chief UN inspector Hans Blix and IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei.—AFP