Iraq said yesterday independent media and individuals should accompany any UN arms inspectors, voicing fears that Washington would otherwise use the inspections as a pretext for war.
In the US, President George W. Bush pressed hard for a UN Security Council resolution to end seven weeks of wrangling and force Iraq to surrender any weapons of mass destruction.
Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan made clear in remarks published by Iraqi newspapers that Baghdad did not trust the US or the inspectors.
"America doesn't want the return of inspectors. It wants to issue a resolution with a [tough] formula in order to be rejected by Iraq and give it a pretext to commit aggression against Iraq," Ra-madan said.
Putting forward the idea for independent media and individuals to accompany the inspection teams, he said, "We will not allow the inspectors to be the sole source [of information] because we don't trust them."
Ramadan said it was wrong to rely solely on the "head of any [inspection] team who would send a report to the [UN] Security Council which would issue a resolution based on that report."
The US, backed by Britain, has been urging the other three veto-wielding Security Council members to back a new resolution to get Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to give up any weapons of mass destruction or face dire consequences.
US officials have called this week decisive but have set no deadline for giving up on the UN. One official said it was remotely possible the matter could slip into next week.
Bush told a political rally in Denver, Colorado, on Monday: "The message from America is this: If the United Nations doesn't have the will or the courage to disarm Saddam Hussein, and if Saddam Hussein will not disarm, for the sake of peace, for the sake of freedom, the United States will lead a coalition and disarm Saddam Hussein."
At the UN, the two men poised to lead the efforts to uncover any Iraqi weapons of mass destruction endorsed the idea of warning Saddam of consequences for failing to cooperate with inspectors.
Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix and Mohammed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in charge of inspecting any Iraqi nuclear arms, met the 15-member Security Council as it continued its debate on Iraq.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said France would not accept any clause in a UN resolution that included an automatic recourse to military action.
"Recourse to force can only be the last resort," he said.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in comments published yesterday it was too soon to decide whether the Security Council should meet at ministerial level on Iraq.
"It's an option," French newspaper Le Monde quoted Powell as saying in an interview with several newspapers.
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