UK considers Iraq arms deadline

UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998

The UK Government says it will consider proposing a deadline for Iraq to comply with UN Security Council resolutions and allow weapons inspectors back inside the country.

In a statement, the government says that it would give "future consideration" to the proposal from the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

Straw: ball is in Iraqi leader's court

The statement does not say what penalty would apply if Iraq were to miss any such deadline.

UN weapons inspectors have been barred from Iraq since December 1998 - although Baghdad had agreed to allow them in as part of the ceasefire accord that ended the Gulf War in 1991.

In separate comments to the Financial Times newspaper, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that Baghdad should be put "on the spot" over allowing inspectors to search for any biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.

"So what I want to do, what we're doing, is putting the ball back in Saddam Hussein's court. He is in breach of these nine security council resolutions. He has 27 separate obligations. He is in breach of 23 of them," Mr Straw said.

Timeline: arms inspections

Feb 1991: Gulf War ends - Iraq subjected to UN arms inspections

Jan 1998: Iraq accuses inspectors of spying

Feb 1998: UN reaches new deal with Baghdad

Oct 1998: Iraq ceases co-operation

Nov 1998: Inspectors return

Dec 1998: Inspectors leave - US air strikes begin

Jul 2002: UN-Iraq talks end without deal

Aug 2002: Iraq invites inspection chief to Baghdad

Amid US calls for "regime change" in Baghdad and threats of military action the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, has added his voice to warnings against resorting to force.

The UK statement about the deadline proposal came in the government's official response to the Foreign Affairs Committee report.

"Existing UN resolutions require immediate Iraqi compliance, including on weapons inspections," the statement reads.

"The government will nonetheless be giving further consideration to this recommendation."

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Barnaby Mason says the deadline proposal would be useful for Britain as it tries to bridge the emerging gap between London and Washington on Iraq.

Britain has argued the threat of military action could be lifted if the weapons inspectors were allowed back in, although the government statement on Thursday acknowledged that Iraq would be a "better place" without Saddam Hussein.

An unnamed White House official quoted by the Reuters news agency has said the US will try to oust Saddam Hussein whether or not he admits weapons inspectors.

"The case for regime change is broader than just weapons of mass destruction," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Saudi opposition

Meanwhile, a senior adviser to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has poured scorn on Saudi opposition to military action against Saddam Hussein.

Bush has been trying to get Arab countries on side

Speculation has been growing about a possible attack on Iraq by the US, which alleges that Saddam Hussein is developing weapons of mass destruction.

Ken Adelman, a former deputy director of the National Security Council, told the BBC he believed that most of America's allies would quickly rally behind any US-led action.

Responding to comments by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, he also suggested the Saudis feared the prospect of a future stable Iraq.

Mr Adelman suggested that the Saudis regarded Iraq as a potential rival.

"What they really fear is to have a neighbour which is democratic, which is open, which is oil-rich, which is successful - like the top part of Iraq right now, the part that is protected by UK and US airpower through the no-fly zone."

'Unwise move'

The Saudi foreign minister told the BBC that dealing with the Iraqi leader by trying to remove him from the outside would never work.

"To say that the most important thing about Iraq is the removal of Saddam Hussein we think is an unwise, to say the least, decision to make," he said, adding that the Iraqi leader's fate should be decided by his people alone.

He said that efforts should focus on persuading Iraq to readmit weapons inspectors.

His comments echoed statements made over the past few days by other leading Arab figures, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Jassem al-Thani.