U.S. fails to convince U.N. council on Iraq

By Edith M. Lederer and Dafna Linzer ~ The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS -- Key members on the U.N. Security Council said Wednesday that the United States had so far failed to convince them that time had run out for a peaceful resolution to the crisis with Iraq.

At a crucial council meeting a day after President Bush's State of the Union speech, 11 of the 15 members supported giving more time to weapons inspectors to pursue Iraq's peaceful disarmament -- France, Russia and China who all have veto power as well as Germany, Mexico, Chile, Guinea, Cameroon, Syria, Angola and Pakistan, council diplomats told The Associated Press.

Only Bulgaria and Spain backed the United States and Britain in focusing on Iraq's failures rather than continued inspections.

At the daylong Security Council meeting, which was held behind closed doors, Britain remained squarely in Washington's camp.

"There are members of the council who are asking for time, but it isn't a matter of time. It's a matter of whether Iraq realizes that the game is up, or whether it is trying to keep the inspectors at bay," British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said during a break in the meeting.

U.S. diplomats had hoped Wednesday's council meeting would signal increased international support for military action in Iraq. But neither the largely negative reports from weapons inspectors this week nor Bush's address altered the positions of some of America's key allies, including France.

"The majority of the council thinks we should continue inspections," said French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere. "This is what they think today, and I think it is important to say so."

Intense negotiations

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said the United States would conduct intense negotiations, both at the United Nations and between capitals, ahead of the special Feb. 5 council meeting where Powell is expected to present evidence of Iraq's secret weapons programs and links to terrorist groups.

Council diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity said the possibility of a second resolution was being widely discussed. The most likely scenario would be a resolution declaring that Iraq has failed to cooperate actively with inspectors and setting a relatively short deadline for Baghdad to meet certain steps, the diplomats said.

Bush said Tuesday night he would use the "full force and might of the U.S. military" if needed to disarm Iraq.

In the meantime, Negroponte pressed the chief weapons inspectors behind closed doors Wednesday for additional answers on intelligence the United States believes indicates Iraq is rearming.

But Mohamed ElBaradei, the top nuclear inspector in Iraq, said the evidence hasn't panned out and he disputed Bush's claims that Iraqi intelligence agents are posing as scientists

In a wide-ranging interview with AP, ElBaradei stood by his inspectors' findings that aluminum tubes the Iraqis had tried to import were for rockets and not for a nuclear program, as the president reasserted in his speech Tuesday night.

Also in his speech, Bush said: "Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as the scientists inspectors are supposed to interview. Real scientists have been coached by Iraqi officials on what to say, and intelligence sources indicate that Saddam Hussein has ordered that scientists who cooperate with U.N. inspectors in disarming Iraq will be killed, along with their families."

'We know all the scientists'

ElBaradei said it was unlikely his inspectors "could be fooled in the nuclear area on who is a scientist and who is not.

"We know all the scientists from the past and I think our people could easily detect if that person is a scientist or not."

ElBaradei and the other chief U.N. inspector, Hans Blix, spent Wednesday answering questions from Security Council members regarding their reports on the first 60 days of inspections.

Their differing -- but ultimately negative -- reports issued Monday were used by Bush to strengthen arguments for possible war, and could persuade reluctant allies to support military action to disarm Saddam.

But key council members were unswayed by the reports and Bush's address.

During a break, German Ambassador Gunter Pleuger said inspectors should be given "a realistic opportunity to discharge their mandate. Let us not put aside an instrument we only recently sharpened."

Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov said reports that President Vladimir Putin was shifting to a more pro-American stance were misinterpretations.

"We believe that inspections must continue and that if Iraq stops cooperating with inspectors and starts blocking inspections, we must look into it. We have been saying this all along," Lavrov said.

Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri dismissed Bush's allegations as "lies" and said his government will fully cooperate with inspectors to show "that these baseless allegations are nothing but fabrications."

The president said in his address that intelligence sources had revealed that Iraqi security personnel were hiding documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors, sanitizing inspection sites and monitoring the inspectors themselves.

ElBaradei said security was tight among inspectors but he wouldn't be surprised if the teams had been infiltrated by any country eager to know what exactly was going on.

"We are used to many efforts of infiltration, but I will not be shocked if we have been infiltrated. We're trying to have a very tight security plan on a need-to-know basis, and any intelligence we get is shared with not more than three or four people maximum."

Blix agreed.

"I don't think anyone at a high level would contend that there have been leaks," he told reporters.