UN arms inspectors searched four suspect sites in Iraq yesterday as US President George W. Bush, overseeing a military build-up in the Gulf, prepared to rally troops at the largest US Army base.
A state-run Iraqi newspaper described Bush as "the master of evil-doers," a day after the US president said there was scant evidence Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would avoid war and abandon his suspected weapons of mass destruction peacefully.
In Iraq, the UN inspectors continued their hunt for evidence of chemical, biological and nuclear arms yesterday, a Muslim day of rest.
Missile experts visited a state company involved in the manufacture of mechanical parts for rockets 60km southeast of the capital, Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.
The officials said a chemicals team inspected al-Basil Company in al-Nahrawan. The facility consists of several pilot plants involved in the production of chemicals.
A UN Monitoring, Inspection and Verification Commission (UNMOVIC) team headed for Ramadi, 110km west of Baghdad, while a biological team left for Basra, 550km south of Baghdad. It was not clear what they would visit there.
More than 100 inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency and UNMOVIC are in Iraq trying to assess what its military industries have been doing since inspectors left in 1998.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution in November demanding Iraq give a full account of its weapons programs and cooperate with weapons inspectors, as required by resolutions stemming from the 1991 Gulf War, or face tough consequences.
Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, accused Washington on Thursday of "an imperialist design" to invade his oil-rich country regardless of the verdict of the inspectors, who must report their findings to the Security Council by Jan. 27.
Bush, who planned to visit Fort Hood base in his home state of Texas yesterday, said he had still not made a decision to attack Iraq.
But signs such as his cancellation of a January trip to Africa and troops' preparations have prompted many military analysts to predict he will order an attack.
Early orders for troop deployments from the US have apparently not involved Fort Hood, the largest domestic US Army base and home to about 40,000 soldiers.
Iraqi daily Al-Iraq questioned the sincerity of a New Year's Eve statement by Bush that he still hoped the standoff with Baghdad could be resolved peacefully.
"Bush remains the first evil-doer or the master of evil-doers on earth," Al-Iraq said in an editorial.
It said he had talked about a peaceful solution simply to defuse rising global public anger.
"[The] truth of the matter is that Bush wanted ... to cool down the climate after the rise of temperature of global public anger over his threats and preparations for aggression against Iraq," is said.
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