UN: Greece has suggested that the European Union could join an Arab League delegation to Baghdad in an effort to persuade Iraq to disarm.
The Greek foreign minister, Mr George Papandreou, whose country holds the EU Presidency, said after a meeting in Beirut yesterday with Jordan's King Abdullah that the Arab League was prepared to make "a last attempt" to persuade President Saddam Hussein to comply with UN resolutions.
"We have talked about the possibility of whether the envoys should be Arabs or the EU and Arabs. No decision has been taken yet," he said.
Brussels diplomatic sources were privately dismissive of the idea, however, suggesting that a mission to Baghdad could achieve little.
"I think the best thing we can do is just to ignore this altogether," said one source.
Meanwhile, Greece appeared to have won the agreement of most EU member-states to call an emergency meeting of EU leaders, probably next week, to discuss the crisis over Iraq.
The European Commission's chief spokesman, Mr Jonathan Faull, said that no decision would be made on the summit until after the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, addresses the UN Security Council today.
"There is a general view that if at the appropriate time the Greek presidency believes that something useful could be achieved by a summit then of course people will come to it," he said.
The EU is deeply divided over the prospect of war against Iraq, with some countries, led by Britain, hinting that they would support an attack without a fresh UN mandate while Germany has said it will oppose a war even if the UN Security Council sanctions it.
France and Germany united last month in an effort to forestall war but Europe's divisions became manifest last week when five member-states signed a letter expressing support for the US and distancing themselves from the Franco-German position.
The crisis has provoked a rare display of public disagreement between the EU's foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana and the External Affairs Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, over the importance of the EU speaking with one voice. Meanwhile, the President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, has disowned a visit to Baghdad by 30 MEPs, including Mr Proinnsias de Rossa and Ms Patricia McKenna.
If Mr Powell's speech to the UN today fails to win over wavering Europeans to the US cause, the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, will have an opportunity to mend fences on Saturday when he attends the annual Conference for Security Policy in Munich.
The conference's organiser, Mr Horst Teltschik, who was a security advisor to the former German chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, believes that Europe's divisions may have made war more likely.
"I fear that the German government's attitude and the division of Europeans into supporters and opponents of US policy may have ruined the last chance of a peaceful solution. One must say it very soberly: Europe has robbed itself of influence on the Iraq issue," Mr Teltschik said.
