Iraq defiant as deadline nears

Armed members of President Saddam Hussein’s Baath party fanned out across Baghdad in a show of force today while other residents hunkered down before a US ultimatum expires for the Iraqi leader to leave Iraq or face war.

Iraqi officials remained defiant, with MPs meeting in extraordinary session and declaring their loyalty to Saddam, even as US and British armoured units in the Kuwaiti desert began taking up positions closer to the Iraqi border.