US willing to go it alone, says Powell

AS the world waits for UN weapons inspectors to report to the Security Council today, the United States said it was willing to go it alone to topple Saddam Hussein.

Kicking off a week that could hasten or delay war to disarm Iraq, US Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday sought to win over a cagey Europe for a possible assault on Baghdad.

He gave mixed reassurances that the Bush administration would be patient and consult its allies with warnings that time was short and the United States would not wait for ever. “Multi-lateralism cannot become an excuse for inaction,” Mr Powell told the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos.