US vice president Dick Cheney has dismissed international unease over a possible US attack on Iraq and said Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and is a "mortal threat".
He also downplayed concerns, laid out by some senior members of his own party, that a US strike could hamper the global "war on terrorism" and undermine pro-US governments in the Arab world.
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Mr Dick Cheney: "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction"
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"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction," Mr Cheney told war veterans. "There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use them against our friends, against our allies and against us," he said.
"What we must not do, in the face of a mortal threat, is to give in to wishful thinking or to willful blindness. We must not simply look away, hope for the best and leave the matter for some future administration to resolve," he said. Mr Cheney's speech reprised one he gave on Monday in Nashville, but in what is now a familiar double act, President Bush later used more moderate language, saying a decision had not yet been made on whether to attack.
International leaders are still pressing Washington to consider international weapons inspectors and to seek UN approval for any future military campaign if inspections fail.
French President Jacques Chirac said yesterday he was concerned by what he called a "temptation to seek to legitimise the use of unilateral and pre-emptive force".
Muslim leaders are keeping a united front in an effort to avert a strike against Iraq, saying it could unleash turmoil in the Islamic world by widening a gulf between Muslims and the West.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, both pivotal pro-US figures in the Muslim world, have joined open opposition to proposed US aggression.