UN move is pretext for US attack, says Iraq

THE Iraqi government protested to the UN on Sunday that the small print behind its mission will give the US a pretext to attack.

The protest came as inspectors readied a crucial new round in the weapons hunt.

The new UN resolution on weapons inspections could turn "inaccurate statements among thousands of pages of required Iraqi reports into a supposed justification for military action", Foreign Minister Naji Sabri complained in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.