The United States yesterday rebuffed a plan by France and Germany to enlarge UN weapons inspections in Iraq as a means of avoiding war, and rejected concessions by Iraq to chief UN weapons inspectors in weekend talks as part of a game of deception that President Bush said was over, write Conor O'Clery, in New York and Derek Scally, in Berlin
The chief UN weapons inspectors, Dr Hans Blix and Dr Mohamed El Baradei, said yesterday in Baghdad they had made progress in two days of talks but that more advances were needed before they gave their report to the UN Security Council on Friday.
Responding to the comments of the chief inspectors, US national security adviser Dr Condoleezza Rice told CNN yesterday, "Iraqis are playing a game here. They are trying to create a little bit of a sense that they are moving forward" but they had yet to account for weapons stocks or mobile biological laboratories.
A serious rift between Washington and its allies, France and Germany, over Iraq deepened when US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell yesterday poured cold water on a reported Franco-German initiative to deploy thousands of UN peacekeepers and hundreds more weapons inspectors as an alternative to war.
"More inspectors doesn't answer the question," Mr Powell said. "If the UN finds that it does not have the will to act, then President Bush has made it clear that he would act," and the US was quite confident it would be joined by many other nations in that action.
In Berlin Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted cautiously to the Franco-German proposal.
"We don't see any reason for the use of force at the moment," said Mr Putin, who will hold talks with French President Jacques Chirac in Paris today. "Decisions based on the one-sided use of force will bring suffering to millions of people and increase international tension."
Mr Putin said Russia's position was "practically identical" to that of France and China, and was thus held by a majority of permanent Security Council members.
The Franco-German plan would effectively turn Iraq into a protectorate of the UN, and sideline President Saddam Hussein.
French, German and US aircraft would patrol the skies over Iraq and the existing no-fly zones in Iraq would be expanded over the entire country.
Mr Peter Struck, the German Defence Minister, said that German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schröder would present concrete plans, developed secretly by staff at the Chancellery in Berlin and the Élysée Palace in Paris according to Spiegel magazine, in the Bundestag on Thursday.
US officials were visibly irritated by news of the proposal, with US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld in Munich complaining that he heard of it first in the media. His visit sparked a 20,000- strong anti-war rally in Bavaria at the weekend. "We are making clear to every French and German that we find here that this is not the way to score points with the American government," he said.
In Baghdad Dr El Baradei told a press conference that they saw "the beginning of a change of heart on the part of Iraq" but "impressed upon the Iraqis that we need quick progress and drastic change". Dr Blix said Iraq had promised to reply to their demands for overflights by U-2 surveillance planes by Friday and Iraqi officials had given the inspectors a number of "papers relating to high-profile issues".
Iraqi Gen Amer al-Saadi told a separate press conference that he hoped the controversy over U-2 flights could be resolved before Friday's Security Council meeting.
Transatlantic divisions also emerged within NATO over plans to defend Turkey in the event of war. Belgian Foreign Minister Mr Louis Michel said yesterday Brussels would block any such preparations. France, Germany and Belgium say such plans could undermine diplomatic efforts to avert a conflict. Mr Powell said he found the objections "inexcusable."
Pope John Paul, meanwhile, said a senior cardinal would go to Baghdad today to try to persuade Iraq to co-operate with the international community.