US rejects French and German peace plan

THE United States clashed openly with reluctant European allies yesterday, rejecting a last-ditch peace plan to send UN troops to Iraq along with a beefed-up team of weapons inspectors.

Secretary of State Colin Powell poured cold water on what Germany said was a Franco-German initiative to be presented at a crucial UN Security Council session Friday.

US officials criticised the proposal to send UN peacekeepers to Iraq and increase the number of weapons inspectors to force Saddam Hussein to disarm, calling it an ineffective ploy to delay military action.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said increasing the number of UN inspectors would be "a diversion, not a solution."

Top UN arms inspectors, who ended two days of talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad yesterday, will give a report at the council session that could trigger a US-led war. The council passed resolution 1441 in November requiring Iraq to disarm.

"More inspectors doesn't answer the question and what France has to do and what Germany has to do ... is read 1441 again," Mr Powell said.

The initiative outlined by German Defence Minister Peter Struck on the fringes of a major security conference in Munich was clouded in confusion after France denied it was part of any secret plan.

Paris's only proposals for reinforcement of UN weapons inspections that resumed in Iraq in November had been put to the Security Council last week, the French Foreign Ministry said.

But Mr Struck, whose country has previously aroused Washington's anger over its determined opposition to war to destroy Iraq's alleged nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes, said he hoped the council would accept the plan.

"We hope that the initiative will be taken up positively in the Security Council on February 14," he said.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday they hoped Iraq could be disarmed peacefully.

Mr Putin said Moscow saw no reason now for the use of force against Iraq: "We are convinced that a one-sided use of force would lead to great suffering for the population and increase tension in the whole region."

Both Mr Schroeder and Mr Putin said Iraq must fully co-operate with weapons inspections. Mr Putin said France, Germany and Russia were coordinating closely in the Security Council over Iraq and also shared similar positions with China on the issue.

Mr Struck said the UN troops would back up arms inspections that resumed in November to hunt and destroy any banned weapons in Iraq.

A German magazine said the plan was for thousands of UN soldiers, a trebling of arms inspectors and a clampdown on oil smuggling.

US-European divisions on Iraq have emerged also within NATO.