Robin Cook: "This is a wholly bogus argument by Saddam Hussein and the Baghdad regime"

Robin Cook welcomed the outcome of the United Nations meeting in New York, which unanimously rejected Baghdad's request to replace UK and US humanitarian staff.

He pointed out UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had the support of both China and Russia is dismissing the demand.

Mr Cook said: "Of course the safety of British citizens is always one of our paramount concerns. But I do have to say this is a wholly bogus argument by Saddam Hussein and the Baghdad regime.

Robin Cook: "Iraq is making bogus claims"

"This is a country which is more controlled in terms of the repression and suppression of public opinion than pretty well any other country in the United Nations. You can get years in prison for throwing a stone at a photograph of Saddam Hussein.

"The suggestion that popular unrest is going to pose a threat to British or any UN workers is a wholly bogus from this particularly oppressive regime."

The foreign secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the UK staff in Iraq were chosen for their skills and no other reason.

"These are humanitarian workers and the work they do is overwhelmingly popular with the Iraqi people," he said.

"Surely the key issue for the Iraqi people is are they getting the people with the right skills and the right ability to do the job.

Saddam Hussein: Continuting antagonism with West

"The Iraqi Government is not particularly clever at orchestrating all this, it is brutal. If you do not go along with what it asks you will face torture, brutality and prison. That is how Saddam rules - it is exactly because of that brutality we cannot walk away and leave him with weapons of mass destruction."

Mr Cook said he did not expect tensions caused among Islamic groups by the recent bombing of Iraq to overshadow UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's trip to South Africa.

Despite threats to Mr Blair's safety and planned protests, the foreign secretary said he remained confident the prime minister would receive a warm reception.

On what has been portrayed as the key objective of the South Africa trip - enlisting the renewed assistance of President Nelson Mandela in the process of bringing the Lockerbie bombing suspects to trial - Mr Cook said he was confident of progress.

He stressed the crucial role played by President Mandela in striking a deal for the two suspects in the Netherlands - as Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi had originally requested.

But with Colonel Gaddafi now apparently stalling on that deal, the foreign secretary said an extra push from Mr Mandela would be welcome.

"President Mandela has a long-standing relationship with Colonel Gaddafi and indeed it was President Mandela himself who about two years ago did floated the idea [of trial in a third country].

"We know that since we have made that offer very carefully worked out with our friends the United States and the Netherlands that President Mandela has been pressing Colonel Gaddafi to accept it."