Powell - Search for weapons in Iraq should be postponed

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Colin Powell, clashing with the chief U.N. weapons inspector, said Tuesday the search for hidden arsenals in Iraq should be held up until the Security Council adopts tough new rules.

Powell, at a hastily arranged news conference, said sending inspectors back to Iraq now after a lapse of nearly four years would risk more deception by Saddam Hussein.

Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix reached agreement with Iraq earlier Tuesday in Vienna to resume the inspections.

But Powell, in an unusual diplomatic confrontation, said "Dr. Blix is an agent of the Security Council and will carry out what the Security Council will do.

"Our position," Powell said, "is that he should get new instructions in the form of a resolution."

And, Powell said pointedly, the Security Council will adopt its resolution without negotiating with Iraq.

"Everybody understands that the old inspection regime did not work," Powell said. The Iraqis "tied it up in knots."

Blix, in Vienna, said an advance team of U.N. inspectors could be in Iraq in two weeks if it gets a go-ahead from the Security Council.

The deal ignores U.S. demands for access to Saddam's palaces and other tough provisions of a resolution the United States and Britain have proposed jointly.

Continuing pressure

Referring to the other three Security Council members -- France, China and Russia -- which could veto the resolution, Powell said "other nations have a different point of view."

But he said inspections would work only if there is a resolution that "keeps the pressure" on Iraq by warning of consequences if it continues to defy the Security Council.

Stressing that the goal should be disarming Iraq, Powell said there is no magic calendar as to when inspectors have to go in. "They should go back when they are able to do their job," he said.

He said that was possible only with a new resolution with "new terms and high standards."

"We are determined," Powell said. "We are absolutely convinced we can make the case that a new resolution is appropriate with consequences for further violations."