U.S. Orders Troops to Gulf; Europe Hesitant on War

abcnews.go.com — By Carol Giacomo and Hassan Hafidh

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States ordered 62,000 more troops to the Gulf at the weekend, despite signs of European reluctance to rush to war with Iraq.

As the military build-up went ahead, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said Sunday that only Iraq's neighbors could prevent the United States from declaring war on Baghdad.

Sources said British Prime Minister Tony Blair would meet President Bush soon after U.N. arms inspectors present a key report on Jan. 27 on Iraq's compliance with their searches for weapons of mass destruction.

The inspectors visited at least eight sites in Iraq on Sunday, hunting for banned nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, an Iraqi official said, as Baghdad again accused them of spying.

"Inspection teams are here and our cooperation with them is continuing, but if America wants to look for a pretext for the aggression, only the countries of the region can prevent it," Saddam was quoted by Iraqi state television as saying during a meeting with Turkish Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen.

Tuzmen was carrying a letter from Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul urging Iraq to comply with U.N. resolutions in an effort to ward off military action.

"With clarity, seriousness and brotherly dialogue we can reach the best solutions in the field of bilateral cooperation which would lead to many achievements and a high degree of stability in the region," Saddam said.

BLAIR TRIP TO WASHINGTON

Blair, Bush's staunchest ally on Iraq, is expected to use his trip to Washington to press his position that U.N. inspectors be given time to do their work.

His spokesman said Blair had told his cabinet: "January 27, whilst an important staging post, should not be regarded in any sense as a deadline."

The Washington Post, however, quoted a senior U.S. official as saying while the United States believed the January 27 report would probably not provide a definitive trigger for war, "it is a very important day (marking) the beginning of a final phase."

Besides ordering the deployment of 62,000 additional military forces since Friday, the Pentagon launched an e-mail campaign urging Iraqi civilian and military leaders to reject Saddam.

Defense officials said the United States could be ready for war by mid- to late-February with a force exceeding 150,000 soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen.

But European officials have spoken out against a rush to war on the basis of inconclusive weapons inspections, which resumed in late November after a four-year hiatus.

France, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, has insisted on an international mandate for any military action, while Germany opposes an attack on Iraq.

Three out of four French people were opposed to France taking part in any Iraq war, a survey in the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche showed. In Britain, many in Blair's own Labor Party opposed war, surveys have shown.

NO SMOKING GUN

Washington accuses Baghdad of developing weapons of mass destruction and has threatened war unless Iraq complies with a tough new U.N disarmament resolution. Iraq denies it possesses such weapons.

U.N. inspectors have said they have not found concrete evidence of active weapons programs, "no smoking gun," but that Iraq's weapons declaration fails to answer many questions.

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, in the government newspaper al-Jumhouriya, repeated accusations by Saddam last week that the inspectors were carrying out "intelligence" work, but said Baghdad would continue to cooperate with them.

"We know they are playing an intelligence role. The way they are conducting their inspections and the sites they are visiting have nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction," he said.

Saddam's adviser Amer al-Saadi said: "They (inspectors) are asking questions which are irrelevant to weapons of mass destruction and to their mandate. For example, they visited an air base and asked about the routes leading to and out of it."

Saadi also said two Iraqi scientists interviewed by U.N. inspectors last month had refused to leave the country for further interviews on Iraq's weapons programs. The United States has pressed inspectors to take scientists abroad in the hope they would feel more able to disclose crucial intelligence.

Saadi said he expected the interviews to be "a topic for further discussion" with chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei when they visit Iraq on Jan. 19.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa warned any attack on Iraq would open a "Pandora's Box" of problems in the Middle East, "a region already frustrated by Israeli policies against Palestinians," United Arab Emirates newspapers reported.

Against the backdrop of possible war in Iraq, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed in Vienna Sunday to raise production to stave off a rise in oil prices threatened by a strike in Venezuela.