Rice claims ‘moral case’ to oust Saddam

US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice called Iraq's Saddam Hussein an "evil man" in a broadcast interview Thursday, saying he would wreak havoc on the world, if the West does nothing to stop him.

In an apparent attempt to sway sagging British public support for any US move to oust the Iraqi president, Rice told the BBC that the US believes it has a "moral case" for removing the Iraqi leader.

There is mounting speculation the United States soon will launch a military campaign to remove Saddam.

"This is an evil man who, left to his own devices, will wreak havoc again on his own population, his neighbours and, if he gets weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them, all of us. (It) is a very powerful moral case for regime change," she told BBC radio. "We certainly do not have the luxury of doing nothing." Iraq has offered conflicting signals in recent weeks about allowing the return of UN weapons inspectors who have been refused access for four years after leaving in advance of US and British air strikes.

Echoing President Bush, Rice said that Saddam's pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in defiance of its disarmament pledge after the 1991 Gulf War was a powerful case for a regime change: "He has used chemical weapons against his own people and against his neighbours, he has invaded his neighbours, he has killed thousands of his own people," Rice said in the interview for the BBC's September 11 anniversary radio series, "The Diplomatic Jigsaw".

"He shoots at our planes, our airplanes, in the no-fly zones where we are trying to enforce UN security resolutions.

"History is littered with cases of inaction that led to have grave consequences for the world. We just have to look back and ask how many dictators, who ended up being a tremendous global threat and killing thousands and, indeed, millions of people, should we have stopped in their tracks," she added.

Gerald Kaufman, a lawmaker from the Labour Party, said in an article published on Thursday in the Spectator magazine that there was broad opposition in Parliament to a strike against Iraq.

"(Prime Minister) Tony Blair would find it difficult to support and participate in a war against Iraq whose majority in the House of Commons was provided by the Conservatives," Kaufman said.

He argued that the "hawks" in the US administration were giving the president poor advice.

"Bush, himself the most intellectually backward American president of my political lifetime, is surrounded by advisers whose bellicosity is exceeded only by their political, military and diplomatic illiteracy," Kaufman wrote.