Bush to make Iraq case to U.N.

NEW YORK - President Bush is urging the United Nations to compel Iraq to disarm, backing his appeal with a hefty document accusing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of a decade of deception and defiance of 16 U.N. resolutions. Bush addresses the General Assembly at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

Bush was making his case against the backdrop of widespread disinclination among U.S. allies to use force against Baghdad and a caution from U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the United States should not to take action against Saddam without U.N. Security Council backing.

The Bush administration has made clear it feels justified in going it alone if necessary and contends it does not need new legal authority to use force to try to oust Saddam.

``For more than a decade, Saddam Hussein has deceived and defied the will and resolutions of the United Nations Security Council,'' the document circulated in advance of Bush's speech said.

It warned that Iraq has stepped up its quest for nuclear weapons and has embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb. In the past 14 months, the document said, Iraq has tried to purchase thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes that officials believe were intended as components of centrifuges to help produce weapons-grade uranium.

Bush wants the U.N. nations - there are 190 of them - to pressure Saddam to readmit international inspectors after a lapse of more than 3 1/2 years to look for hidden arms and then to compel him to disarm.

These demands are rooted in resolutions adopted during and after the 1990-91 Persian Gulf war that forced Iraq to reverse its annexation of Kuwait. Iraq denies it is developing weapons of mass destruction.

At the same time, Bush hopes to gather support from reluctant allies and others for using force against Iraq if it balks. Bush's strategists, meanwhile, are considering setting a deadline with serious consequences if Saddam does not comply.

The implicit warning of U.S. military action to remove Saddam from power would be contained in a U.N. Security Council resolution proposed by Britain. A veto by Russia, China or France would kill the measure.

Bush is ``going to make clear that the current regime in Iraq is an outlaw regime, that it has defied U.N. resolutions for 11 years now,'' a senior U.S. official said.

In remarks prepared for delivery to the opening of the General Assembly ministerial meeting, Annan called on Saddam to admit U.N. weapons inspectors or face any consequences the Security Council might impose, while also emphasizing he opposed unilateral U.S. action against Iraq.

``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,'' said Annan, who was to speak before Bush.

To underline the importance of Annan's remarks, the United Nations released his speech Wednesday night.

Secretary of State Colin Powell did some preliminary diplomacy on Wednesday, discussing what he described as a need to enforce Security Council resolutions with the foreign ministers of the other four permanent council members - Britain, China, France and Russia - along with his German and Australian counterparts.

In a speech to the nation Wednesday night marking the anniversary of last year's terror attacks, Bush made indirect reference to his campaign against Iraq.

``We will not allow any terrorist or tyrant to threaten civilization with weapons of mass murder,'' he said.

U.N.-Iraq talks since March have failed to get Saddam to agree to the return of inspectors, who left in December 1998 ahead of U.S. and British airstrikes to punish Saddam's government for not cooperating with inspections. Iraq said it wants to continue the dialogue - but with a broad agenda on outstanding issues which Annan has rejected.

Britain is solidly in the U.S. camp. But German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has dismissed military action as an ``adventure'' and other foreign leaders have expressed doubts. Bush has said he is prepared to act unilaterally if need be.

British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon, who met with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday, said diplomacy should and would come first.

``But when dealing with dictators, diplomacy must be backed up by the certain knowledge in the dictator's mind that behind the diplomacy lies the real threat of force being used,'' Hoon said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Efforts by Bush to win congressional support were having mixed results.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Wednesday that he did not think the time had run out for diplomacy. Moving alone against Iraq would be the worst option, said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.

``I will be extremely disappointed if the president goes and enunciates a unilateral approach: 'The world be damned, here we go.' That is not in our interest,'' Biden said told the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia.