SOUTH AFRICA: Mr Nelson Mandela said yesterday he was "appalled" by President George Bush's threats of military action against Iraq.
"What they are introducing is chaos in international affairs and we condemn that in the strongest terms," Mr Mandela told reporters outside his Johannesburg home.
"We are really appalled by any country, whether it is a superpower or a poor country, that goes outside the United Nations and attacks independent countries," Mr Mandela said.
Mr Bush says Washington wants a "regime change" in Iraq - a euphemism for ousting President Saddam Hussein.
Mr Mandela blamed hawks in the Bush administration for the hardline policy over Iraq.
"I think it is his advisers that are misleading [Bush]. The United States must be exemplary in everything that they do . . . No one must be allowed to take the law into their own hands," he said.
"The message they are sending is that if you are afraid of a veto in the Security Council then you can do what you want," Mr Mandela said before talks with French President Jacques Chirac, the first of a stream of state leaders to pay their respects.
Mr Mandela said he had tried and failed to reach Mr Bush by telephone. But he said he had spoken to US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell and to Mr Bush's father, former President George Bush, and asked him to raise the Iraq issue with his son.