Europe moves to rein in US over plans to attack Iraq

EUROPE moved to stay America’s hand over Iraq yesterday, as top officials spoke out against a rush to war on the basis of inconclusive weapons inspections.

"Without proof, it would be very difficult to start a war," European Union foreign policy coordinator Javier Solana said.

As US President George Bush continued to mobilise his forces and met Iraqi opposition leaders, one of President Saddam Hussein's main Iraqi foes said an invasion could destabilise the Middle East and warned that the sort of massive occupying force Washington envisages would face popular armed resistance.

"We reject the idea of an invasion and occupation of Iraqi territory," said Shi'ite Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim.

After UN inspectors told the Security Council on Thursday they had found no "smoking gun" to challenge Iraq's insistence it has no nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, Washington made clear it still felt Baghdad was defying the United Nations.

With the world's eyes turning to North Korea, which has admitted developing nuclear weapons and pulled out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty yesterday, US officials insisted Iraq posed a major threat, however little the inspections found.

Chief inspector Hans Blix told the Security Council Iraq had "failed to answer a great many questions".

The United States said if Iraq continued to deceive it would again be in "material breach" of Council resolutions language that could mean war.

In Iraq, UN experts visited three sites yesterday, including a rocket fuel plant which Britain has alleged may be developing missiles to carry chemical or germ warheads.

The US is doubling its 60,000-strong force in the Gulf. The Pentagon has told a further 7,000 Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to get ready, US military officials said yesterday.

But EU Commission President Romano Prodi called for calm: "War is not and must not be inevitable," he said in Greece, which plans to lead an EU peace mission to Arab capitals soon.

The 15 EU nations are sharply divided over Iraq. Britain is mobilising its forces including a big naval landing force led by flagship carrier Ark Royal alongside the Americans despite grave doubts within British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour party.

The bloc's other main military power, France, is cooler, insisting on an international mandate for any war.

Germany, the biggest economy, opposes outright the idea of attacking Iraq.

"Inspections should continue and for that reason there are no grounds for military action," Berlin's ambassador to the United Nations, Gunter Pleuger, said in New York.