IRAQ: Iraq's arms declaration was not encouraging, President Bush said last night. He added that the US was "serious about keeping the peace."
"Yesterday was a disappointing day for those who long for peace," Mr Bush told reporters a day after the US had declared Iraq was in "material breach" of a UN disarmament resolution for failing to disclose suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes.
Mr Bush spoke as he met representatives from the UN, the EU and Russia to discuss ways to advance the Middle East peace process.
He said the Iraqi arms document as analysed by the US "was not encouraging".
"We expected him to show that he would disarm," Mr Bush said of President Saddam Hussein. "We're serious about keeping the peace. We're serious about working with our friends in the UN so that this body, ably led by Kofi Annan, has got relevance as we go into the 21st century.
"We will fulfil the terms and conditions of (Security Council Resolution) 1441 . . . The world spoke clearly that we expect Mr Saddam Hussein to disarm."
As if to underline its determination, Washington's top military commander said the US would go on deploying forces to the Gulf, but had yet to set a date for any assault.
"We will continue to send more troops and improve infrastructure in a prudent and deliberate way," Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Qatar, a possible launching-pad for any US-led attack on Iraq.
"One of the reasons is to keep helping the diplomatic angle, to reinforce diplomacy and to ensure the Iraqi regime understands the options it has," said Gen Myers, who was on a day-long visit to Qatar to meet some of the 5,000 US troops at Camp Al Sayliyah and Al-Udeid airbase.
"There is certainly no date set for any action. But we are looking at more force build-up and in some cases infrastructure improvement, so that we can be ready with our coalition partners to do whatever it is we are asked to do," he said.
He said plans were not greatly affected by US charges that Iraq was in "material breach" of UN resolutions for failing to disclose its alleged weapons of mass destruction in a report to the UN. Iraq has denied the charge.
"We are going to do what we are doing," Gen Myers said. "We are getting a lot of help from several countries, especially the countries in the region . . . "
The head of the UN nuclear weapons inspectors said, meanwhile, that Iraq had done little to disprove allegations it had violated Security Council resolutions by attempting to obtain materials usable in atomic weapons.
Mr Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Iraq had admitted to attempting to import aluminium tubing which the US says Baghdad wanted for enriching uranium for atomic weapons.
"However, they said these tubes were meant for conventional rockets and not for centrifuges. We expect and we impressed on them that we need details. We cannot just take their word for it."
Mr ElBaradei said the IAEA wanted to know who the suppliers were and all the specifications of the tubes.
Dr Hans Blix, who heads the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection (UNMOVIC) teams hunting for chemical, biological and ballistic weapons, told the Security Council on Thursday that he too was unable to verify Iraqi claims that it wanted the tubes for conventional rockets.
"At this stage UNMOVIC has drawn no conclusions concerning the tubes, and further investigation of this will be conducted," said Dr Blix.
Mr ElBaradei repeated he was extremely disappointed that the Iraqis had kept silent on these and a number of other issues.
The Security Council has asked arms inspectors to provide a detailed assessment of Iraq's arms declaration on January 9th, in an effort to evaluate Baghdad's claim it no longer has weapons of mass destruction, diplomats and UN officials said yesterday.
France, which chairs the Security Council in January, set the new date after council members, 10 of whom received a censored 3,500-page version of the declaration, said they wanted another update from the inspectors as soon as possible.