The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, said yesterday in Athens that a US strike on Iraq's suspected arsenal of biological and chemical weapons could have a disastrous impact on neighbouring countries.
He said: "If there are such weapons, a strike would significantly affect all neighbouring countries." Iraq has vehemently and repeatedly denied having biological or chemical weapons, saying they and the long-range missiles to deliver them were destroyed under UN supervision years ago.
"We have reached the conclusion that the destruction of such weapons must certainly take place but not through an attack. The political means for a solution to the problem have not run out," Mr Primakov said.
Russia has been spearheading a diplomatic initiative to counter US threats to strike Iraq and Mr Primakov said he was happy at the positive response to the proposal that the UN Secretary General should visit Baghdad to defuse the crisis.
The Russian Foreign Minister held a two-hour meeting with his Greek counterpart, Mr Theodoros Pangalos, and later met the Prime Minister, Mr Costas Simitis, and President Costis Stephanopoulos.
"Russia and Greece don't see the use of weapons in Iraq as necessary and are working together to resolve this matter which could have grave consequences," Mr Primakov said. Meanwhile, the build-up of forces in the Gulf continued yesterday with Australia ready to dispatch 250 specialist troops and New Zealand preparing to send two surveillance aircraft and up to 20 commandos.
Australian Special Air Service troops will leave today for Kuwait to join in any US-led attack against Iraq, the Australian Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, said. Mr Howard welcomed New Zealand's offer of an SAS unit and two surveillance aircraft, saying it helped make clear to President Saddam Hussein that many countries would not tolerate him stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
The New Zealand Prime Minister, Ms Jenny Shipley, said the country would stand ready to participate in military action aimed at forcing Iraq to comply with UN demands that it abandon production of illegal weapons of mass destruction.
"By committing our support to the coalition, we hope that will be a small but significant gesture," she added.
Political analysts said the decision reflected the change of approach by Ms Shipley's conservative administration and suggested that she wanted to restore ties with the United States. These have been restricted since a Labour government passed antinuclear legislation in 1987 excluding US warships from its ports.
Meanwhile, in the Kuwaiti desert yesterday some 150 US troops held live-fire exercises. Four M1A1 Abrams tanks and three M106 mortars fired at targets shaped like tanks and personnel carriers in the Udairi range, some 70 km from the border with Iraq.
Around 1,500 US troops are taking part in the "Intrinsic Action" manoeuvres, while several hundred more are based in Kuwait to maintain military hardware.
The US, as part of its build-up in the Gulf, has deployed six Stealth fighters in Kuwait since November; Britain sent eight Tornado bombers last week. Washington sent another six Stealths to the region on Sunday but did not disclose in which country they would be based.