Bush likely to veto ban on germ warfare

America is likely to effectively veto a British-backed agreement which would give teeth to a ban on so-called germ warfare, it was reported today.

A leaked document from new president George W Bush’s review of defence and foreign policy advises against backing a new treaty to prevent the spread of biological weapons.

The convention on biological weapons is being hammered out by the 143 countries which signed a 1972 treaty agreeing to ban germ warfare but which had no provisions for enforcement of the embargo.

A tentative deal was reached earlier this year and when Prime Minister Tony Blair met Mr Bush in Washington in February, he urged the new president to back it.

American backing is crucial and their refusal to participate would effectively end the deal completely.

If the Americans ditch the agreement, which is due to be finalised by November, it will be a second major U-turn by the new administration on treaties which Washington had earlier agreed to.

There was fury in March when the Kyoto agreement on cutting greenhouse gases to prevent global warming was declared ‘‘dead in the water’’ by Mr Bush, who said he had to put American interests first.

The biological weapons agreement would allow for inspections of research centres and military facilities to verify there was no germ warfare research and development taking place.

But the American review, which is not yet White House policy but seen in Washington as certain to become official soon, claims the inspections would not prevent rogue states developing the weapons.

It would also allow them to find out what America was doing at its top secret bio-defence installations, which are working on protective clothing and vaccines, and analyse the threat of germ warfare.

American arms control official Michael Moodie said: ‘‘The protocol was not going to get the job done.

‘‘It is not going to deter proliferation.’’

And he said even if there were inspections, countries could hide their weapons and research.

‘‘We still would not be confident that there were not major violations going on,’’ he said.

The Clinton administration had backed a deal to have international inspections along the lines of those which currently take place to verify the scale of nuclear weapons proliferation.

A total of 143 nations, including Britain, signed the 1972 non-proliferation treaty on the weapons, but made no provision for enforcing it.

It was shown to be ineffective in 1992 when then Russian president Boris Yeltsin admitted the Soviet Union had been stockpiling germ weapons for more than 20 years.

And there were fears during the 1990 Gulf War that Iraqi Saddam Hussein would unleash the biological bombs he was believed to have been developing alongside nuclear and chemical weapons.