THE US: The United States will not launch a war on Iraq without UN backing, NATO chief Lord Robertson said yesterday, while reiterating the alliance's support for military action if needed.
But Lord Robertson said the 19-member North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would have a "moral obligation" to back military action if United Nations attempts to disarm Baghdad failed.
Washington had asked NATO to consider helping out in the event of a war, he said, but no decisions had yet been taken.
"Up to now the United States has kept very rigidly to the United Nations route. They still do, the inspectors are still there," he told the BBC.
He added: "There is a certain amount of rhetoric, but in reality President Bush has strongly placed his country in the fold of NATO and also within international, multilateral institutions."
Washington sparked frustration within NATO last year when it decided to sideline the alliance in the war against Afghanistan, fuelling debate about its relevance in the post-Cold War era.
But the US asked NATO earlier this month for help in any possible military action against Iraq. The request was made by US Deputy Defence Secretary Mr Paul Wolfowitz during a visit to NATO's Brussels headquarters.
The US request came after NATO leaders agreed at a November summit to take "effective action" to secure Iraq's "full and immediate compliance" with UN disarmament demands.
"What the Americans have done in NATO is to suggest a number of options where NATO could help in a military action and countries have been invited to consider that," Lord Robertson said.
President Bush has stressed his commitment to working with his allies, after agreeing to UN Security Council Resolution 1441 which tightened the arms inspections regime.
But speculation about impending conflict has been stoked after Mr Bush moved to double US troop levels in the Gulf and cancelled a January trip to Africa. Military experts have pointed to late January or early February as a prime window for US-led military action to disarm Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government disclosed yesterday that food distribution has been increased so that civilians can stockpile supplies for a war.
Readying itself for full-scale war, the Iraqi trade minister, Mr Mohammed Mehdi Saleh, said yesterday that everyone in Iraq should have a stockpile of food to last three months. "And we are going to increase the quantity in the coming months so that everybody is secured in this regard," he said.
After a decade of deprivations due to UN sanctions, Baghdad continues to ration basic food supplies. Better-off Iraqis have access to most foodstuffs on the open market and have been stockpiling food this autumn. But the poorest are dependent on rations; nearly all can recite almost to the gram their entitlement of rice, milk powder, wheat and other basics.
Mr Saleh said that since earlier this year every household had received double rations every other month.
He also warned that war would bring hardship not only to the Iraqi civilian population but also to the aggressors.
"We have taken measures to defend our country, our land and \ will not be a picnic ... They will face hardship, difficulties and big losses if any aggression takes place and they will not achieve any objective from the war," he said.
It echoed a speech that President Saddam read out on state television 24 hours earlier, in which he called for extra efforts to boost national pride and faith "in order for people to see that it is worth it to sacrifice their soul and life in defence of the nation".
Those with a vested interest in keeping President Saddam in power will have to fight, fearful of a vengeful population should he fall. But the reaction of most people is open to doubt, with hatred of President Saddam weighed against dislike of the US for its support of sanctions and pro-Israel policies.
The Iraqi armed forces have carried out extensive war games, including urban warfare, says the Iraqi press.
The UN weapons inspectors, who have now conducted some 180 inspections across Iraq over the past five weeks, returned yesterday to the Baghdad University of Technology, which they first visited on Christmas Eve, to interview Mr Sabah Abdel-Nour, a scientist involved in Iraq's nuclear programme, a project that Iraq claims to have dismantled.
Mr Abdel-Nour, who refused to meet the inspectors without Iraqi officials being present, told reporters Iraq no longer had such a programme.- (Guardian Service)