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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-421249,00.html The Times (London) September 20, 2002 Bush presses Russia to back UN action on Iraq >From Roland Watson in Washington and James Bone in New York -Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, also sought to put pressure on Moscow yesterday, saying that America would be free to take military action even without Russia�s agreement. General Powell cited the Kosovo conflict as a precedent, where Russia had blocked UN Security Council attempts to authorise force. PRESIDENT BUSH will today warn Russia that it would lose influence in a post-Saddam Iraq unless it backs robust United Nations action against the dictator. Mr Bush will hold critical White House talks with Sergei Ivanov, the Russian Defence Minister, and Ivan Ivanov, the Foreign Minister, in an attempt to end the stand-off caused by Saddam�s concession on weapons inspectors. The President said yesterday that the US was prepared to act against Saddam if the UN would not. His message was designed to show that Washington was still set on replacing Saddam, despite Iraq�s claim that it will admit inspectors. He also hinted that America�s friends would be in the forefront of efforts to establish a successor regime. The threat of lost influence with Baghdad, where Moscow is owed $8 billion (�5.3 billion), is the highest diplomatic card that the US can play with Russia in trying to win its support, and Mr Bush is expected to address the issue in the talks today. However, Russia yesterday maintained that it saw no need for a new UN Security Council resolution being sought by the US and Britain. Mr Ivanov said that inspectors could �easily determine� whether Iraq was harbouring weapons of mass destruction. Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, also sought to put pressure on Moscow yesterday, saying that America would be free to take military action even without Russia�s agreement. General Powell cited the Kosovo conflict as a precedent, where Russia had blocked UN Security Council attempts to authorise force. Washington also suggested that if Saddam fled into exile, there would be no need for US military action. Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said: �There have been any number of leaders who have departed recognising that the game was up, that it was over, that they had run their term. So that could happen.� Mr Bush yesterday asked Congress to give him authority to use military force against Iraq. A proposed text of a congressional resolution, drafted by the White House, stated: �The President is authorised to use all means that he determines to be appropriate, including force, in order to enforce UN Security Council resolutions.� Refusing to become involved in talks with Baghdad, Mr Bush said: �There are no negotiations to be held with Iraq. They have nothing to negotiate.� However, the US is clearly determined to ensure that UN inspectors have access to Saddam�s presidential palaces. �I am aware that there is an impatience to get on,� Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, told the Security Council last night. He said that the first inspectors would reach Iraq on October 15 and inspections would begin soon afterwards. �We will select some sites which are interesting to go to in the early phases.� John Negroponte, the US Ambassador, said that Iraqi non-compliance would not be tolerated, according to diplomats present. A 1998 agreement on presidential sites was struck by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary- General, on a visit to Baghdad to defuse a stand-off over access to Saddam�s palaces. The eight presidential sites cover a total of 31.5 square kilometres. The UN suspected that Iraq used buildings in the presidential grounds to hide work on weapons of mass destruction. But Iraq claimed that the inspections were a threat to the personal security of Saddam. The memorandum of understanding, signed by Mr Annan, required foreign diplomats to accompany UN weapons inspectors on any visits to the presidential sites. Diplomats and weapons inspectors spent eight days on a preliminary inspection of the eight sites, but Iraq balked at follow-up inspections. In a message to the UN, Saddam complained that the previous inspections regime had been used for �intelligence and espionage�. He said that US allegations about Iraq�s weapons programmes were �fabrications� and accused the US of targeting Iraq �on behalf of Zionism� and said it wanted to destroy the country so it could control Middle East oil. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! 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