Iraq ambassador denounces 'liar' Bush

Iraq’s United Nations ambassador sent a defiant message to George Bush after the US president urged world leaders to confront the "grave and gathering danger" of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq - or stand aside as the United States acted.

"He chooses to deceive the world and his own people by the longest series of fabrications that have ever been told by a leader of a nation," Mohammad Al-Douri said.

Yesterday, from the United Nations’ cavernous main hall, filled with wary friends and one bitter foe - Al Dhouri - Bush said the world body must rid the world of Saddam’s biological, chemical and nuclear arsenals or risk millions of lives in a "reckless gamble".

Behind the scenes, US diplomats reported progress toward a UN resolution giving Iraq a firm deadline - just weeks way - to disarm or face dire, but so far unspecified, consequences.

"If Iraq’s regime defies us again, the world must move deliberately and decisively to hold Iraq to account," Bush said in his 15-minute address. "The just demands of peace and security will be met or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power."

Bush gave Saddam a chance to avoid confrontation, but only if Iraq met a series of strict US demands that no US official, including Bush, expected Iraq to meet. The biggest challenge to Saddam was to remove or destroy all weapons of mass destruction from Iraqi soil.

The address was Bush’s answer to deep reluctance among US allies and American politicians to use force against Saddam despite Iraq’s decade-old defiance of UN resolutions. By coming to the UN, Bush rejected the advice of some senior administration officials who had urged him to confront Iraq alone and without delay.

Many world leaders welcomed Bush’s attempt to reach out, but counselled him to give Saddam every chance to allow UN weapons inspectors to return. Others objected to any talk of war, and a few fretted openly about their bleak choices.

"We are facing a lot of very, very difficult challenges and choices, and I guess we will have to choose among a lot of bad options," Norwegian foreign minister Jan Petersen said.

Pakistan’s president Pervez Musharraf, in private talks with Bush, warned that an attack on Iraq could cause him domestic problems in his mostly-Muslim country and enrage "the Arab street" against the United States, according to an official who heard the exchange.

Addressing the General Assembly before Bush, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged caution.

"When states decide to use force to deal with broader threats to international peace and security, there is no substitute for the unique legitimacy provided by the United Nations," he said.

But he also seemed to back Bush’s charges against Saddam, suggesting time was running short for Iraq to admit weapons inspectors.

"If Iraq’s defiance continues, the security council must face its responsibilities," Annan said.

In Washington, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said, "I don’t think that the case for pre-emptive attack has been made conclusively yet. That doesn’t mean it can’t be."

Even former President Bill Clinton, who urged Bush to finish the job with Osama bin Laden before taking on Iraq, said he had not heard Bush’s speech but said: "I think going to the UN was a good thing."

Republican members praised the address and urged Democrats to yield quickly on a resolution authorising action against Saddam - an act that would make Iraq an issue deep in the US mid-term election campaign.

At the United Nations, the tension was palpable as Bush mingled with world leaders. Before their addresses, Bush and Annan posed stiffly in a corridor until Annan murmured to the president: "Let’s shake." Then the two joined hands and Bush placed an arm across Annan’s back.

In the speech, Bush bluntly asked, "Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding or will it be irrelevant?"

After completing his remarks, Bush drew a deep breath and blew it out again, his cheeks puffed and his frame slumped into a high-backed seat.

Bush does not believe Saddam can avoid confrontation with the United States, advisers say.

"If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately and unconditionally forswear, disclose and remove or destroy all weapons of mass destruction, long-range missiles, and all related material," Bush said.

He also demanded that Saddam stop supporting terrorism, persecuting minorities, trading oil illegally for other goods and account for a US pilot and soldiers from other nations missing since the Gulf War.

Administration officials likened the demands to those Bush imposed on the Taliban in the run-up to war in Afghanistan.

Bush did not spell out the consequences of Saddam’s refusal to comply, but senior administration officials pointed to language in the address that points to the potential for military action: "The purpose of the United States should not be doubted: The Security Council resolutions will be enforced."

There were doubts, however, from every corner of the world.

German finance minister Hans Eichel warned that an attack on Iraq could wreck Germany’s economic recovery.

Bush countered the concerns with a damning account of Saddam’s regime, including the attempted assassination of Bush’s own father - former president George W Bush.

He said Saddam had stockpiles of deadly chemical and biological agents, and could build a nuclear weapon within a year if he secured fissile material.

US secretary of state Colin Powell was today beginning work with the security council’s four other permanent members - Russia, China, France and Britain - on a resolution giving Saddam a deadline to disarm.

Of the four, only Britain has supported Bush thus far, but US officials said Bush’s decision to go to the UN first had built momentum for his case.