Saddam must obey demand to disarm, says Bush

WASHINGTON -- With a deadline days away, President Bush warned Saddam Hussein on Tuesday that "there's no more time" and he must obey a U.N. demand to disarm Iraq.

If Saddam should ignore the ultimatum, "We will lead a coalition to disarm him," Bush said. "The man must disarm. He said he would disarm; he now must disarm."

"This kind of deception and delay -- all that is over with," the president said.

In renewing his warning about forcibly disarming Iraq, Bush scoffed at the Iraqi parliament's recommendation that the unanimous resolution adopted last week by the U.N. Security Council should be rejected.

Bush called the assembly in Baghdad "nothing but a rubber stamp for Saddam Hussein," and White House spokesmen said only the Iraqi president could decide whether to cooperate with the United Nations.

Even with the tough rhetoric, Bush administration officials were keeping their options open on what the response to might be if Saddam were to reject the U.N. deadline.

"We will see what they will do," Secretary of State Colin Powell said. "I don't want to prejudge what the Security Council might do, what the United States might do in the absence of a positive statement."

He said the deadline set by the council for Iraq to accept its terms and pledge to comply was intended as an "early indication" of Saddam's intentions.

Some of the president's advisers consider rejection a trigger for U.S. action, but others were not certain, White House officials said on condition of anonymity.

The U.N. resolution does not deal specifically with consequences should Iraq say no, they said.

Stockpiling antidote

Iraq also is stockpiling supplies of antidotes to nerve agents, suggesting Saddam is trying to protect his armies if he uses such weapons on the battlefield, a Bush administration official said Tuesday, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

Iraq has imported significant quantities of the antidotes atropine and obidoxime chloride during the past two years, the official said, supporting a report Tuesday in The New York Times. The administration is trying to stop future deliveries of the antidotes, but sanctions rules do not restrict them. Some of the imports have come from Turkey, a NATO ally supporting sanctions-enforcement flights over Iraq.

"We have talked to Turkey about procurements by Iraq," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. He said acquisition by Iraq of great quantities of antidote could indicate an intention to use chemical weapons.

Boucher said he could not confirm the report that Turkey was selling atropine to Iraq, and Turkish officials said in Ankara they had no knowledge of such transactions.

Gen. Tommy Franks, who would command any U.S. military action in Iraq, said Tuesday it was up to Saddam whether Iraq's disarmament would be voluntary or forced by the U.S. military. Franks said the military is methodically preparing for the possibility of war.

"We won't be quick. We will be prudent," Franks said.

"The president of the United States has not made a decision to go to war in Iraq," the general said at a luncheon in Florida.

"The president of the United States has made a decision that a continuation of cheat, retreat, fail to abide by Security Council resolutions ... will not stand."