Bush wants 'final' talks - President, allies plan to bring new Iraq resolution to Security Council, setting the stage for military action

www.timesunion.com By ELISABETH BUMILLER, New York Times First published: Sunday, February 23, 2003

CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush said on Saturday that even if Iraq agreed to destroy all of its prohibited missiles, they were "just the tip of the iceberg" of its illegal arsenal, and he asserted again that Saddam Hussein had no intention of disarming.

Bush made his remarks at the side of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of Spain, who was at Bush's ranch to consult on the wording of a new resolution the administration wants to present to the U.N. Security Council next week that would declare Iraq in violation of its obligations to disarm and authorize military action.

The President characterized the talks in the United Nations as "final deliberations," a signal that Saddam may have only weeks left before an American attack.

Aznar, along with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, is among the supporters of Bush's position whose countries hold seats on the current Security Council.

Bush was reacting to a demand on Friday by Hans Blix, a chief U.N. weapons inspector, that Iraq must start destroying within a week all of its al Samoud 2 missiles and any illegally imported engines for use in rockets. If Iraq does not comply, American officials are certain to present the failure as powerful evidence that Saddam will never part with his weapons of mass destruction.

But Bush went beyond that argument and in essence said that at this point there was almost nothing that Saddam could do to avoid action by the United States.

"If Iraq decides to destroy the weapons that were long-range weapons, that's just the tip of the iceberg," Bush said. Saddam, he said, "will say words that sound encouraging."

"He's done so for 12 years," Bush added. "So the idea of destroying a rocket, or two rockets, or however many he's going to destroy, says to me he's got a lot more weapons to destroy, and why isn't he destroying them yet?"

Bush also said he and Aznar had just completed a conference call with Blair and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy to discuss the strategy for a battle for votes in the 15-member Security Council in favor of a new resolution.

So far the United States is sure of only three other votes besides its own firmly in support of a new resolution -- those of Britain, Spain and Bulgaria. That's five votes short of passage.

Bush said the new resolution would be a clear and simple declaration that Iraq is not in compliance.

Diplomatic sources said the United States will demand a vote on the resolution within three weeks, a time frame that will allow the council to hear a final report from Blix on Iraqi disarmament efforts March 7 before the council votes.

Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the U.N.'s nuclear agency, said Saturday that peace was still possible but he wanted to see more cooperation from Iraq.

Meanwhile, Pentagon officials said the United States hopes to begin moving troops and equipment into Turkey as early as this week, preparing for an expected second front in a possible war with Iraq.

With negotiations continuing, they confirmed a tentative agreement on U.S. aid to Turkey, whose parliament could vote on the deal Tuesday. Officials said the deal involved $6 billion in grants and $10 billion in loan guarantees from the United States.

In Iraq, Saddam told a Cabinet meeting that Iraq will win any war against the United States, according to Al-Shabab Television.

"Victory will be yours, God willing," Al-Shabab quoted him as telling his ministers. "They were attacking us in 1991 and no one said anything," Saddam said. "Now there are people protesting in Germany, America, Britain and other countries."

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark -- a major figure of the U.S. anti-war movement -- flew into Baghdad on Saturday to meet with officials.

Clark said Bush may change his mind about attacking Iraq.

"I think (Bush) has already been delayed weeks beyond what he wanted," he said. "They may decide they just can't risk going forward, as badly as they want to. I think they've had to take pause at the big peace demonstrations."

In related news:

To offset a shortfall in oil imports caused by a recent political crisis in Venezuela, American refineries have more than doubled their imports of Iraqi crude -- to more than 1 million barrels a day -- over the past two months, buying more than $1.6 billion in Iraqi oil through foreign middlemen between Dec. 5 and Feb. 1, according to unpublished U.N. figures.

In Vatican City, Pope John Paul II held a private audience Saturday with Blair. A statement issued by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Vatican officials stressed the need to resolve the crisis through the United Nations and "to avert the tragedy of a war that is judged to be still avoidable by more sides."

Moscow media reported that former Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov was dispatched to Baghdad on Saturday on a confidential mission for the Kremlin.

Primakov sought in vain to avoid the first allied war in which a U.S.-led coalition drove invading Iraq forces from neighboring Kuwait.