Britain said yesterday war on Iraq might not need a new UN resolution, or even UN backing, but Baghdad said it had already come clean about arms programs and that its president would fight to the bitter end.
"Saddam Hussein is a courageous leader and will stay in Iraq for a very long time and fight until the last Iraqi bullet," Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told the BBC Arabic Service, referring to the Iraqi president.
UN arms inspectors checked out another six sites in Iraq, saying they were now getting welcome US and British intelligence to widen their search, while Arab foreign ministers met to try to find a way to deflect a possible war.
There were conflicting signals about when or if a war might come. A US military build-up in the Gulf continued apace but US officials and defense experts said political and logistical pressure could delay any invasion for months.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Britain wanted a fresh UN Security Council resolution backing force if Iraq defied November's resolution on disarmament, but it was not vital.
"We've had to reserve our rights [to use force] if we can't achieve that," he said, without repeating a comment last week that war was slightly less likely than a peaceful outcome.
In Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said he favored a new Security Council resolution on Iraq. Germany, opposed to joining any attack, began a two-year term on the Security Council this month.
Baghdad said it had answered all questions about its past chemical, biological, missile and nuclear weapons programs in a 12,000-page declaration handed to the UN last month, though it said it was ready to answer more.
He said he feared weapons inspectors might bow to US pressure to change their course of action, but said Blix and his counterpart at the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, could ask anything when they visit from Jan. 19 to Jan. 20.
RSS