IRAQ/UN: The US National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, flew to New York yesterday to press the chief UN weapons inspector, Dr Hans Blix, to acknowledge in a UN Security Council briefing tomorrow that Iraq has failed to voluntarily scrap its prohibited chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes, according to US and UN diplomats.
The visit coincides with US and British consideration of a new Security Council resolution that would formally declare Iraq in violation of its disarmament obligations, paving the way for a possible US-led military invasion of Iraq. US officials said that Britain could introduce such a resolution as early as next week.
Ms Rice's unannounced meeting with Dr Blix underscored the Bush administration's concern that Dr Blix's report to the council, while critical of Iraq, may not be decisive enough to convince wavering Security Council members to support an immediate move to war. Sources said Dr Blix's report would be much briefer than the one he gave to the council on January 27th and that as of Tuesday would not contain a declaration that Iraq is in "material breach" of its obligations, which the United States has sought.
The meeting came as NATO diplomats in Brussels stepped up efforts to head off a diplomatic rift between the United States and Europe's two leading opponents of war, France and Germany, who have blocked a NATO decision to prepare for the defence of Turkey in the event of a war against Iraq.
"We are reaching the moment when the Security Council can no longer look away," the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, told a Senate budget committee on Tuesday. "It is clear that a moment of truth is coming with respect to Iraq and with respect to the Security Council as to whether it will meet its responsibilities.
"This is not just an academic exercise or the United States being in a fit of pique. We're talking about real weapons. We're talking about anthrax. We're talking about botulinum toxin. We're talking about nuclear-weapons programmes."
At the meeting, Ms Rice told Dr Blix that Iraq was in violation of a November 8th Security Council resolution which gave the Baghdad government "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations" before it would face "serious consequences", US officials said.
Ms Rice also said Iraq's agreement this week to allow U-2 reconnaissance flights over Iraq contained conditions which belied Baghdad's willingness to co-operate fully with UN inspectors, the officials said.
Administration officials quoted from a letter on February 10th from Mr Amir Al-Saadi, the chief science adviser to the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, to the UN inspectors agreeing to surveillance flights by American U-2s, French Mirages and Russian Antonovs.
The letter stressed the need for inspectors to provide Iraq "with a timely notification of each flight, including the time and point of entry, speed and call signal that ensure communication with the pilot when necessary". A US official said: "This is not a serious concession, it's conditioned."
Although Dr Blix has not officially responded to the letter, UN officials said he agreed during a visit to Baghdad on January 20th to notify the Iraqis each time the inspections agency conducted a reconnaissance flight.
The officials defended the accord on the grounds that the Security Council endorsed the inspectors' plans to follow guidelines used by the previous UN inspection agency that notified Iraq when it conducted U-2 flights.
France, meanwhile, sought to build support for a proposal to reinforce the UN inspections. The French proposal, which is intended to stave off US military action, calls for doubling or tripling the size of the UN inspection agency, increasing the frequency of surveillance flights and expanding the role of UN security guards to monitor suspected weapons sites.
The French proposal, which was outlined in a paper distributed to reporters on Tuesday, calls for the recruitment of accountants, archivists and teams of custom officers who would be granted the authority to monitor goods entering Iraq to prevent the import of weapons-related material. A new intelligence bureau, employing as many as 10 analysts, would be established to analyse reconnaissance imagery and to assess intelligence provided by national intelligence agencies.
"Our approach is based on the need to compel Iraq to co-operate by taking the peaceful approach of intrusive inspections," the paper stated. "They must be more intensive, more carefully targeted, more intrusive."
Mr Powell said the French proposal for more monitors would not bring about Iraqi compliance. "The answer is Iraqi compliance, Iraqi full, active, complete co-operation," he said. "And If we had that, we could probably do it with fewer inspectors, because we would not be running around looking for needles in haystacks."
Dr Blix also expressed scepticism over the French initiative, telling French radio that many of France's proposals were already proposed by the US in November.
"Yes, we can use more inspectors," Dr Blix said, "but what is more important is co-operation on substance if Iraq declares, explains, presents documents, offers some witnesses. That's even more important."-