No Iraq attack from Saudi soil, says minister

SAUDI ARABIA has told the US it will not be allowed use the kingdom’s soil for any attack on Iraq, Foreign Minister Prince Saud said yesterday.

The long-time American ally has no problem with the US continuing to monitor Iraqi skies from its air control centre in the kingdom, Prince Saud said.

But, "we have told them we don't (want) them to use Saudi grounds", to attack Iraq, he said.

"We are against any attack on Iraq because we believe it is not needed, especially now that Iraq is moving to implement United Nations resolutions."

"For the government of Iraq, the leadership of Iraq, any change that happens there has to come from the Iraqi people. This is our attitude."

Under Security Council resolutions, sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which led to the Gulf War, cannot be lifted until UN inspectors certify its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons have been destroyed along with the long-range missiles to deliver them.

Last week, Iraq invited UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to Baghdad for technical discussions that could lead to a resumption of the inspections, more than three-and-a-half years after they were barred.

However, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has told Iraq in a no-nonsense letter that if it wants weapons inspectors to return, it must accept the Security Council's terms and he urged Baghdad to say yes.

Mr Annan insisted Iraq must follow the path laid out by the Security Council and rejected its proposal to deal with outstanding issues about its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

The return of inspectors is a key demand of the Security Council and especially of the US, which has accused Iraq of trying to rebuild its banned weapons programs and of supporting terrorism.

US President George Bush, who has called for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to be replaced, has threatened unspecified consequences if inspectors are not allowed to return.

With members of the US Congress and senior officials talking openly about war with Iraq, Saddam Hussein's government is facing increasing pressure to let the inspectors back. Whether Iraq will agree to the Security Council's terms remains to be seen.

In the letter, Mr Annan said he looked forward to Iraq accepting the Security Council's "sequence of steps" for the resumption of inspectors and issuing a formal invitation for the UN inspection agency to return.

Mr Annan stressed "a speedy resumption of inspections" would help resolve all remaining issues about Iraq's weapons programs, which must be dismantled under Security Council resolutions.

He discussed the invitation to Mr Blix with the 15-member Security Council on Monday and spoke to the chief inspector, who is on holiday in Sweden, before sending the letter through Iraq's UN Mission.

"I have no problem with discussions at the technical level. But my concern is the agenda and how it proceeds," Mr Annan said: "I think the letter will clarify that we welcome the invitation, but that we would want to proceed along other lines."

In the letter, Annan did not refer to the invitation except to note Blix called last month for expert talks with Iraq on practical arrangements to resume inspections as "the most direct and appropriate way to resume the inspection process".

Washington has dismissed the Blix invitation as a ploy. US President George Bush has said he is committed to a regime change in Iraq and war rhetoric is running high.