LONDON, March 13: Britain is willing to drop its demand that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein appear on television if it helps secure a second United Nations resolution, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Thursday.

“If the only issue between us, our partners on the Security Council and Saddam Hussein is whether or not he makes a TV broadcast, then we’d happily drop that,” Mr Straw told reporters.

But he said Britain — working all-out to win international support for the hard US line on Iraq — would sill need some form of statement from Mr Saddam on weapons of mass destruction.

On Wednesday, Britain, the staunchest supporter of Washington’s push for military action, proposed setting Iraq six specific disarmament tests.

On top of a televised statement from Saddam about his weapons of mass destruction, Britain demanded Iraq let 30 scientists go abroad to talk to UN inspectors; give up stocks of anthrax and other biological and chemical agents or prove they were destroyed; destroy banned missiles; account for unmanned aerial vehicles and hand over mobile biological arms laboratories.

“It’s not about their total disarmament in a matter of days,” Straw said. “It’s about making clear that they are now coming into compliance.” —Reuters