War within days unless Saddam flees

US President George W Bush tonight set the US and Britain on course for war within days to depose Saddam Hussein.

In a prime time address he was telling the Iraqi dictator to flee his country or face the might of American and British firepower.

Troops and aircrews in the Gulf were braced for the order to attack as no one believed Saddam would cut and run.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: “The diplomatic window has closed as a result of the UN’s failure to enforce its own resolutions for Saddam to disarm.”

Any hope of a diplomatic solution to the crisis, disappeared in the UN Security Council when Britain and the US withdrew their resolution, abandoning efforts to win UN backing for a war with Iraq.

British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock blamed France for threatening to veto the resolution which would have issued Iraq with an ultimatum to disarm or face military action.

As war loomed ever nearer, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan ordered weapons inspectors to leave Iraq. They are expected to begin leaving Baghdad tomorrow, joining an exodus of foreigners, including diplomats and US TV crews.

Abandoning diplomacy, President Bush was to address the nation at 1am Irish time to explain his decision.

“This matter cannot continue indefinitely,” Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

The latest draft of Bush’s address gave Saddam a firm deadline to go into exile or face military action, said two senior White House officials. They would not say precisely how long the deadline would be, but said it was a matter of days.

The officials cautioned, however, that Bush could decide before his address to drop the deadline, and that some of his advisers were opposed to it.

Whether Bush sets a deadline or not, several White House officials said war is days away unless Saddam complies.

Bush’s speech, scheduled to run anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, was to include a warning for humanitarian workers and journalists to leave the country, officials said. Bush planned to warn them that Saddam has a history of taking hostages, they said.

Powell said the president would say that leaving Iraq was the only way for Saddam to avoid war. He said that those who must leave Iraq include Saddam and “immediate members of his family.”

The US ultimatum came a day after Bush and the leaders of Britain, Spain and Portugal held a brief summit on Azores Island and agreed to give UN diplomacy one last day.

Powell said the move to abandon diplomacy early today came after “we spent a great deal of time overnight and early this morning talking to friends and colleagues.”

Bush spoke with his two principal allies – Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. Powell spoke to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and with a half-dozen foreign ministers.

Powell, who at one time was the administration’s strongest advocate for finding a diplomatic solution, said that such efforts had ended.

“I can think of nothing that Saddam Hussein could do diplomatically – I think that time is now over. He’s had his chance, he’s had many chances over the last 12 years and he’s blown every one of those chances.”

Powell had sharp criticism for France, saying five years ago it tried to weaken the UN inspection system. Close aides said he would not attend a foreign ministers’ meeting called by France with the support of Russia and Germany.

Powell said that discussions were continuing with Turkey despite the legislature’s decision not to allow that country to be used by the United States for a northern offensive. The Turkish government fears that war in Iraq would cause an uprising among Kurds in northern Iraq, including a possible attempt to create their own state.

“We’ve assured the Turks that we are committed to the territorial integrity of Iraq,” Powell said.

At the United Nations, John Negroponte, US ambassador to the world body, told reporters, “It has been nearly 4 1/2 months since the council unanimously adopted 1441 which found Iraq in material breach and gave it a final opportunity to disarm. The government of Iraq has clearly failed to comply.”

Saddam threatened a wider war if attacked.

Today he claimed that Iraq once had weapons of mass destruction for defence against Iran and Israel but no longer holds them.

Fleischer said US officials were reviewing whether to raise the national terror alert.

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, announced that the Bush administration had advised the agency to start pulling its inspectors out of Iraq.

Boxes were seen leaving UN headquarters in Baghdad and inspectors said they could be leaving on Tuesday morning.

The American-led military buildup in the Persian Gulf continued. More than 250,000 troops, a naval armada and an estimated 1,000 combat aircraft are in the region, ready to strike if and when the president gives the word.

The American public, by a 2-1 margin, supports military action against Iraq to remove Saddam, a slight increase in support from recent weeks, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll out today.