Britain 'wants clear UN ultimatum'

Britain wants a United Nations resolution on Iraq containing “a clear ultimatum” to Saddam Hussein that he will face military action unless he dismantles his weapons of mass destruction, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon indicated today.

Mr Hoon said a resolution should contain a “sting in the tail” threatening a military strike in order to convince Baghdad of the seriousness with which the international community viewed his continuing defiance of existing UN resolutions relating to his arsenal.

Mr Hoon, who has been having talks about Iraq in Washington with his US counterparts, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It is absolutely important that we set out a clear case as to why there should be disarmament in Iraq, why they should no longer threaten the region and the safety of the world with weapons of mass destruction, and to go to the United Nations with a view to securing a resolution that will give a clear ultimatum to Iraq is an important part of that process.”

He continued: “It is vitally important that Iraq understands the seriousness with which the international community views this situation.

“Therefore, a UN process as well as a clear ultimatum with a sting in its tail, as far as prospective military operation is concerned, is part of making it clear to Iraq just how seriously we view this situation.”

Mr Hoon said that before September 11 the West was “rather complacent” about threats from remote parts of the world, such as Afghanistan.

“We cannot afford any longer to be complacent and we have to take seriously the threats to our safety and security wherever they happen to arise in the world,” he said.

He said that delaying military action if UN weapons inspectors were let back into Iraq was something “that would have to be looked at in the context of what access Iraq afforded to inspectors.

“I would certainly want to be sure that they had the opportunity of investigating properly in Iraq,” he said.

Mr Hoon was speaking ahead of US President George W Bush’s speech later today to the UN General Assembly, in which he was expected to say that the time had come for it “to deal with the problem” of Iraq and to compel Saddam to readmit weapons inspectors and disarm.

In another sign of the quickening pace of events, it has been has confirmed that key US military command staff responsible for operations in the Gulf and Central Asia will be shifted from their Florida headquarters to Qatar in November.

Officials at Central Command said the move would be a one-week exercise, but other officials who discussed the matter said it was possible the command staff would remain indefinitely at al-Udeid air base in Qatar - just a few hundred miles from Iraq.