Bush recieves war plan

President George Bush has received a detailed Pentagon plan containing military options for deposing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, a senior defence official said today.

The highly classified plan, delivered to the White House in early September by General Tommy Franks, the Central Command chief who would execute any military action in Iraq, will undergo additional refinements in the weeks ahead, said the source.

Visiting US troops in Kuwait today, Gen Franks said his forces are ready if called upon.

“We are prepared to undertake whatever activities and whatever actions we may be directed to take by our nation,” he said at a news conference.

But he also noted: “Our president has not made a decision to go to war.”

Thousands of American and Kuwaiti forces are preparing to begin a large-scale training exercise, called Eager Mace, using amphibious, ground, air and naval forces.

The exercise, which is held periodically in the Kuwaiti desert - most recently in May 2001 - has not been publicly announced.

Franks’ delivery of his war plan to Bush was first reported in today’s New York Times.

The newspaper cited officials familiar with war planning as saying the Franks’ plan contains the number of ground troops, combat aircraft and aircraft carrier battle groups that would be needed to knock out Iraq’s air defences and military communications and then seize Baghdad.

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee this week, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a key concern of war planners is the possibility that Iraq would launch an attack on US and allied forces in the region using weapons of mass destruction.

He suggested that Iraq’s means of delivering such weapons – by ballistic missile, aircraft or other means – would be among the priority targets at the outset of a possible US attack.

As President Bush considers his options for using military force against Iraq, his administration is simultaneously consulting Russia and other countries on a new UN resolution that would threaten Iraq with war if it does not meet its decade-old obligation to disarm.

Russia is leaving the door slightly open to compromise on the UN resolution. Russia’s decision could turn on whether it gets new and convincing evidence that Saddam is building up stockpiles of dangerous weapons.

Talks will continue at the United Nations, where the United States and Britain are trying to overcome resistance from Russia, China and France to levelling new demands without proof.

A defiant Iraq announced today that Baghdad would reject any new UN resolutions Saddam’s government believes are unfavourable.