White House considers final ultimatum

The White House is considering giving Saddam Hussein a final ultimatum to disarm within a short deadline or face the consequences, senior US officials said today.

The comments came as the US indicated that it may not push for a vote on a UN resolution authorising war against the Iraqi dictator if the measure was clearly heading for defeat.

Even without a veto by Russia, China or France, Washington still does not have the nine votes needed to win Security Council approval.

As US troop strength in the Gulf neared 300,000, President George Bush and his advisers were looking beyond the diplomatic showdown in the UN to the public relations exercise ahead of any war.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said that early next week US leaders would “make a judgment on whether it is time to put the resolution up to a vote”.

But he added that the US was inclined to push for a vote “in the absence of compliance on the part of Saddam Hussein”.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: “The vote is desirable. It is not necessary.”

Once the vote is resolved one way or another, Bush will intensify his case for war, officials said, barring unforeseen events such as Saddam suddenly disarming or going into exile.

As well as a possible address, they have discussed a presidential news conference and a Cabinet meeting as ways for Bush to communicate his plans to the nation next week.

He may stop short of a specific ultimatum, officials said, but would make it clear that war is imminent in other ways, such as warning journalists and humanitarian workers to get out of Iraq.

Meanwhile, Bush telephoned the leaders of India and Egypt to discuss his plans. And officials said Powell had had two telephone conversations and a one-on-one meeting in recent days with Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez in his search for Mexican support.

Meanwhile, the US army’s oldest armoured division, “Old Ironsides,” got its orders to head for the Gulf, and Pentagon officials said US land, sea and air forces were approaching 300,000 in the region.

Tommy Franks, the US commander who would lead the war, met Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon and was to hold talks with Bush later today.

Still to be resolved was the military question of whether Turkey would allow its territory to be used for US ground forces to open a northern front against Iraq.

At the White House, Fleischer said Turkey would lose a proposed multi-billion dollar aid package unless it went along.

Until yesterday, Fleischer had suggested that part of the package would be available to Turkey regardless of whether 62,000 American troops are allowed in the country.

But White House officials said they were turning up the pressure on Ankara in the hope that Turkish MPs would approve the US request in a second vote.

At the UN meanwhile, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Baghdad’s destruction of missiles “a positive development,” putting him at odds with Bush.