There is nothing in Iraq to prompt a war: Blix

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 31: Challenging several contentions of the United States on Iraq’s response to arms inspection, UN’s Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix has said he saw nothing in Iraq which should prompt a war.

Blix, who gave a highly negative report on Iraq’s cooperation with weapons inspectors, disagreed with the Bush administration’s assertions about Iraqi "cheating" and that time was running out for disarming Iraq through peaceful means.

In an interview with the New York Times, Blix seemed to dispel any impression that his report was intended to support Washington’s campaign to build support for war to disarm President Saddam Hussein.

"Whatever we say will be used by some," Blix said, adding he had strived to be "as factual and conscientious" as possible.

"I did not tailor my report to the political wishes or hopes in Baghdad or Washington or any other place."

India again tries to deport Bengali
speaking Muslims: Dhaka

DHAKA, Jan 31: Bangladeshi border guards today prevented what they said was another attempt by Indian troops to forcibly deport Bengali-speaking Muslims to Bangladesh.

Border troops from India’s West Bengal state tried to deport about 200 people at the frontier with Bangladesh’s northern Lalmonirhat district, 340 kilometers from the capital Dhaka, a border official said on condition of anonymity.

Bangladeshi guards refused them entry, stranding the 200 people at the Patgram border crossing. Area commanders from both sides met later in the day, but failed to reach a solution, the official said.

At the meeting, Bangladesh strongly protested the deportation, but the Indians refused to take the deportees back, saying they were Bangladeshis. (AP)

Pak questions allegations against Pakistanis held in Italy

ISLAMABAD, Jan 31: Pakistan today said the allegations against 28 Pakistanis arrested in Italy for a suspected terrorist plot appeared to be "ill-founded".

"The allegations appear to be ill-founded and we have sought consular access to the detainees," Foreign Office Spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said.

Khan said the Pakistani Embassy in Rome had been informed that four of the arrested people had valid job permits and the rest had applied for the same.

Italian police said the 28, arrested yesterday during an anti-drugs sweep, were part of a terrorist "sleeper cell" that was planning an attack. They did not give further details on the group’s plan.

Court sources said the detainees had detonators in their apartment, as well as a kilogram (two pounds) of unidentified explosives and a number of maps, including one for the town of Bagnoli, outside naples, where the NATO southern command headquarters is based. (AFP)

Blair tells Bush to build a wider coalition against Iraq

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 31: British Prime Minister Tony Blair told US President George W Bush today that Washington should try to build a wider coalition against Iraq and create conditions under which other states feel comfortable in supporting its stand, diplomats here said.

Blair, who meets Bush in Washington, would also press that US Secretary of State Colin Powell must present most compelling case in the Security Council that Iraq is hiding prohibited weapons and not cooperating with the weapons inspectors, they said. Otherwise, things might misfire.

Blair would also urge President Bush to use the time he takes till mid March to build up military strength, for garnering support among reluctant states, they said.

Meanwhile, rain and sleet forced Bush and Blair to move their talks on Iraq from Camp David to the White House.

The talks come as the UN’s top nuclear inspector, Mohamed Elbaradei, warned Iraq to allow Iraqi scientists to be interviewed privately. This demand, encompassed in the UN resolution mandating inspections, has been resisted by Iraq opening the way to a possible "material breach" that could lead to war.

The United States has said it would be prepared to lead an invasion of Iraq, with or without un authorisation.

Bush said he was talking to world leaders as part of a final diplomatic thrust that will last "a matter of weeks, not months."

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday that more than 20 nations have agreed to give allied forces full or partial basing, transit and overflight rights in an Iraq war.

This number, if the US acts without Security Council sanction, is more that previous estimates. (PTI)

28 Pakistani terror suspects held in Italy

LONDON, Jan 31: In an operation described by police as uncovering of an Al-Qaeda terrorist cell, 28 Pakistanis carrying explosives, forged documents and maps of targeted cities have been arrested in Naples City in Southern Italy.

The maps had sensitive areas circled with a pen, including NATO’s southern headquarters in the Bagnoli town outside the city and the US Consulate in Naples.

Police said in a statement they had uncovered an Al-Qaeda cell, but gave no further detail.

The Pakistanis were found during a routine check on illegal immigrants yesterday, police said.

Some 800 grams of dynamite, 50 mtres of explosive fuse and various types of detonators were also found, they added.

The police statement said the Pakistanis have been charged with association with the aim of international terrorism, possession of illegal explosive material, falsification of documents and trafficking.

Police made the arrests after breaking into an apartment in the old part of Naples city centre known to have a strong mafia presence. Inside they found the Pakistanis living in a group of several apartments which had been knocked into one.

Apart from hundreds of forged identity documents, police found an index of thousands of international telephone contacts and addresses. Documents in Arabic found in the raid are being translated.

Dozens of people have been arrested in Italy in recent months as part of a crackdown on Islamic terror cells operating in the country. According to USA, Italy is regarded as a frontline target for Islamic terrorist organisations.

Five Moroccans wre arrested a week ago, suspected of planning terrorist attacks. They also had maps of NATO bases in Northern Italy and a plan of central London. (PTI)

Power of oil drives US concerns on Iraq

LONDON, Jan 31: Washington’s main goals in leading a war in Iraq would be to disarm the country and depose Saddam Hussein, spurred by fears of the power that Saddam could amass funded by Iraqi oil riches, according to a reuters poll.

Disarmament and the removal of Saddam were both cited as the main war goals by most of the 20 West Asia and defence analysts questioned yesterday.

But they added that a powerful underlying motive was the risk that Saddam could use his oil wealth to fund weapons of mass destruction, using both to gain regional power and control of the oil market.

"The main objective is to ensure that Iraq doesn’t have any weapons of mass destruction," said Barry Posen at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"They don’t like having to live with the risk that weapons of mass destruction would be used by Saddam in a renewed effort to establish an oil empire."

The Gulf region holds two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves and Iraq has the world’s second biggest reserves after Saudi Arabia.

The poll showed experts now think war is highly likely in the next two months.

The United States uses a quarter of the world’s oil supplies, half of it imported.

"If you are the leading global economic power and your economy is heavily dependent on oil it would be negligent not to even factor the oil situation in," Jeremy Binnie at Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment.

Ingolf Kiesow at the Swedish Defence Research Agency said: "It’s not taking the oil from Iraq that’s the real purpose."

Oil was part of a broader concern to ensure stability in the region, he said.

"It’s an effort to preserve stability in the energy market as a whole and avoid evil dictators getting their hands on the riches and being able to produce weapons of mass destruction, combined with forces like the terrorist organisations."

Mustafa Alani at the Royal United Services Institute in London said Washington wanted to assert its influence in the oil-rich region. "Oil is a factor, to balance the saudis’ domination of the oil market...To influence the whole region," he said.

"The move on Iraq isn’t confined to the geographical borders of iraq, it will have an impact far beyond the borders." (AGENCIES)

UN inspectors to brief UNSCon February 14

VIENNA, Jan 31: Mohamed Elbaradei and Hans Blix, the two chief UN Arms Inspectors, will report to the Security Council on February 14 on progress in Iraq, a UN spokeswoman said today.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Elbaradei and Blix, the chief inspector and head of the UN agency monitoring chemical, biological and missile programs, briefed the Security Council last Monday.

The two men "are scheduled to report once again to the Security Council on February 14. It will be another update on what has transpired," in the inspections, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna.

She said Germany, which takes over the presidency of the Security Council tomorrow had requested the briefing.

Fleming said she could not confirm whether there would be further briefings.

Elbaradei said in Vienna today that he had not yet decided whether to accept an Iraqi invitation to return before the February 14 briefing since "we need to make sure before we go that they (the Iraqis) are ready to move forward" on showing more commitment to arms inspections. (AFP)

Gene law makes Norway’s premier defy own cabinet

OSLO, Jan 31: Norway’s Prime Minister voted against his own cabinet today to register his moral objection to a European Union directive on patenting the building blocks of life.

Kjell Magne Bondevik, a priest in the Lutheran Church, said that EU’s "bio-patent" law contravened his beliefs. Despite being the first Norwegian Premier in 30 years to dissent from the cabinet majority, he said he had no intention of resigning.

"It is fine for me to get into the history books to defend a point of view so serious that I choose to dissent," Bondevik, something of an improbable Prime Minister who took time off in 1998 for depression, told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Norway is not a member of the EU but accepts most eu rulings.

The directive, which permits firms to patent gene sequences, has been passed in some EU nations but spurred outrage among groups who see it as a way to let corporations take ownership of the building blocks of life itself.

Pharmaceutical companies, which have made huge investments in biotechnology, hail the law as a breakthrough allowing them to protect the results of their research and boosting their competitiveness against US companies.

"I think the EU’s patent directive goes so far that it is damaging for ethics and human dignity, for the environment and for the interest of developing countries," Bondevik said.

He rejected the suggestion that the vote might weaken his centre-right coalition:

"This is the first dissent in this government. We respect each other’s views." (AGENCIES)

France to pitch for experimental fusion power plant

PARIS, Jan 31: France said today it will put forward a plan to build a giant experimental thermonuclear power plant on its turf as part of an international project to develop a clean and new energy source.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said France would offer a site in Cadarache, just north of Marseille, for the iter (international thermonuclear experimental reactor) research project to build the fusion power plant worth 30 billion dollars.

France’s bid to house the plant comes a day after President George W Bush said the United States would join the iter project, which is aimed at harnessing the power of fusion — the energy source that powers the sun.

Britain, other European Union countries, Russia, China, Japan and Canada are already working together on the project, which is distinct from ordinary fission reactors as it aims to produce a clean and safe source of energy using fusion.

"If we succeed, this is the solution to all our problems and we’ll no longer need to go to war in Iraq," a source close to the project said, adding that it would be conducted over 40-50 years.

Bush said yesterday he hoped safe, renewable fusion energy could be commercially available by the middle of the century.

France is one of the few countries to have shifted away from oil for its energy needs. The world’s second-largest nuclear power producer after the United States, it has the highest concentration of nuclear power production, which covers 80 percent of its output.

Fusion occurs in the sun when the intense heat and pressure within the sun’s core cause light atoms to collide and fuse together. This creates heavier atoms and releases energy. (AGENCIES)

Blair for new Iraq resolution ahead of Bush summit

WASHINGTON, Jan 31: British Prime Minister Tony Blair today made his strongest call yet for a fresh UN resolution to approve military action against Iraq as he went into a critical summit with President George W Bush.

"I think it’s right that we go for a second resolution, because that’s the way of saying that this is an issue that the international community is not going to duck," he told CNN television ahead of the summit.

The White House has said that a second resolution would be "desirable" but would not stop the United States from launching its own action, if it felt necessary.

White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer reiterated that Bush believes that UN Security Council 1441 passed on November 8 and US Congressional resolution passed in October are all he needs to go to war.

A day after Bush said a decision on war would come in " weeks, not months," the two allies were to meet for about two hours at the White House, hold a press conference at 2100 gmt and have dinner together before Blair returns to London.

Plans to hold the talks at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, were cancelled due to bad weather.

Blair arrived in Washington yesterday following a stopover in Madrid to see Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, another European leader who backs Bush’s strong stand against Iraq.

The British Prime Minister said: "The UN has got to be the way of dealing with this issue, not the way of avoiding dealing with it.

"It’s not a way of putting inspectors back in there (in Iraq) and saying, `we’ll play hide and seek’." (AFP)

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