Saddam still has time to avert war: Bush
UN inspectors used helicopters for the first time Tuesday as they expanded their hunt for Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, which earned them a charge of spying from President Saddam Hussein.
The charge was dismissed by both the inspectors' spokesman and the United States, which has called up nearly 20,000 army reservists and National Guard troops as part of preparations for a possible invasion of Iraq, but President George W. Bush said Saddam still had time to avert a military showdown.
A dozen experts flew from Baghdad, where the UN inspectors have their headquarters, in the early hours of Tuesday to a phosphate plant near al-Qaim, some 400 km west of the capital, close to the border with Syria, an AFP photographer reported.
The team flew to the town aboard three white-painted helicopters marked "UN," escorted by two Iraqi helicopters.
They arrived in al-Qaim around 9:30 a.m. (0630 GMT). The inspectors, wearing protective clothes and masks, began checking the factory, which had already been visited on December 10.
UN spokesman Hiro Ueki said at the time that the factory was involved in processing uranium before the 1991 Gulf War.
The inspectors, who relaunched the arms inspection process on November 27 after a four-year break, have six helicopters, according to Ueki.
They will use them both to travel across the country and carry out aerial inspections.
Ueki on Monday rejected Saddam's charge that the inspectors had, under US pressure, been diverted into carrying out "intelligence activity."
"All I can say is that the inspectors are not spies. We are doing our job professionally, objectively, and the best we can," he said.
Bush said the Iraqi leader's accusation, taken with what Washington charges is his incomplete weapons declaration to the United Nations, sent a discouraging signal.
"That was an interesting statement on his part and when you combine that with the fact that his declaration was clearly deficient it's discouraging news for those of us who want to resolve this issue peacefully," said Bush, who has pledged to disarm Iraq by force if necessary.
Bush charged that Saddam was "a threat to the American people" and "a threat to our friends and neighbours in the Middle East."
The Iraqi leader "is a person who's used weapons of mass destruction. And so therefore the world has said to Saddam, 'You won't have any weapons of mass destruction, get rid of them,'" said Bush.
The US leader said it looked like Saddam had thus far not complied with a UN disarmament resolution, but added that "he's got time and we continue to call upon Saddam Hussein to listen to what the world is saying."
Baghdad's official media Tuesday dubbed Bush the "worst of liars" for his claim that Iraq remained a threat to the United States and its allies.
"Now that UN inspectors have looked and found nothing suspicious in Iraq, how can anyone believe that this country is capable of threatening the United States, a country from which it is separated by continents and oceans?" asked the ruling Baath Party's mouthpiece Ath-Thawra.
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