THE US/QATAR: The US and Qatar signed a pact yesterday to upgrade Qatari military bases which the US could use in any conflict with Iraq.
US Secretary of Defence, Mr Donald Rumsfeld and Qatari Foreign Minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani signed the agreement, which Mr Rumsfeld said was an indication of the importance of their defence co-operation.
"The agreement is something that will improve military readiness," Mr Rumsfeld said.
He said it would allow the US to upgrade facilities on bases in Qatar which it has been using for the past year under a 1992 defence pact.
The pact was updated in 2000 to allow the US to use Qatar's large Al Udeid base.
"This agreement is not connected to Iraq. It has been under discussion for a long time. It would be a mistake to connect it to Iraq," Mr Rumsfeld added.
Analysts say Qatar is rapidly acquiring new importance in US strategy for the region as war looms with Iraq. Some 5,000 US troops are currently in Qatar, where US General Tommy Franks, seen as a possible commander of any attack on Iraq, has established a mobile headquarters.
Meanwhile, teams of UN arms inspectors, accompanied by Iraqi officials, drove from their headquarters on the outskirts of the capital to several locations as their hunt for Iraq's alleged banned arsenal picked up pace in its third week.
The US raised the temperature in its confrontation with Iraq over weapons of mass destruction, saying it would use nuclear weapons if such weapons were used against its forces or its allies.
"The United States will continue to make clear that it reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force - including through resort to all our options - to the use of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) against the United States, our forces abroad, and friends and allies," a US strategy report said.
US officials said the passage on nuclear deterrence was not a change in policy but had been added to the document, the first update since 1993, to put more emphasis on the role of deterrence against a weapons of mass destruction attack.
Iraq accused the US of looking for an excuse for war by seizing control from the United Nations of distribution of the 12,000-page declaration of Iraq's weapons programmes.
The White House said the accusation was "laughable", but Security Council members such as Norway and Syria - who will be given only an edited copy of the document - said they were being treated as second-class powers.