BRITAIN: The British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair will pay a high price if he ignores an "olive branch" from President Saddam Hussein to allow back UN weapons inspectors, a Labour Party MP has said.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, also came under fire over Iraq but from an opposition party criticising him for opposing US military action.
Labour MP Mr George Galloway, who met President Saddam in Baghdad last week, said the Iraqi leader had given Britain a chance to avert a war by offering access to the inspectors, who have been out of Iraq since 1998.
The reported offer cut little ice in London.
"I don't think anything has changed . . . Saddam knows what the UN requires him to do and it's up to him to comply," a spokeswoman for Mr Blair said yesterday.
Mr Galloway said Mr Blair should think twice before dismissing President Saddam's comments.
"If they want to trample on the olive branch they can do so, but they will pay a high price," he said in an interview.
Mr Blair would be foolish to ignore opinion polls showing deep public unease over any military action in Iraq, Mr Galloway said.
Meanwhile, Germany's liberal Free Democrats launched their most strident attack on the Social Democrat Chancellor for ruling out German support for a military strike on Baghdad.
Mr Wolfgang Gerhardt, the FDP's parliamentary leader and its foreign policy expert, said yesterday: "Mr Schröder's stance weakens Germany's position in Europe.
"European countries will realise that the government has reduced German foreign policy to an election topic and notice that it is not being taken seriously," said Mr Gerhardt.
He is seen as a strong candidate to be Germany's next foreign minister if the opposition Christian Democrats and the FDP gain sufficient support in next month's elections to form a coalition, which appears likely.
Mr Gerhardt's remarks follow criticism of Mr Schröder's stance on Iraq from Mr Bernhard Gertz, head of the association that represents members of the German military.
He said at the weekend that the government's position opposing intervention "weakens the United Nations, which needs a convincing threat to convince \ to allow the weapons inspectors to return".
The Chancellor also repeated at the weekend that Berlin should define its own "German way" on foreign policy, excluding involvement in a possible US-led military strike against Iraq, even when this is supported by a new UN resolution.
The FDP would support German involvement under the auspices of a UN resolution and following European Union consultations.
A poll last week showed that three-quarters of Germans supported the Chancellor's stance against involvement in an attack on Iraq, despite the government's general unpopularity.
- (Reuters, Financial Times Service)