WMD Charge yet to be Corroborated: News Analysis

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, May 05, 2003

WMD Charge yet to be Corroborated: News Analysis

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With the arrival of a multinational military force to police post-war Iraq less than a month away, President George W. Bush insisted on Saturday that American troops would find the weapons of mass destruction that prompted the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Six weeks after invading Iraq, US-led forces have, thus far, failed to uncover any of the chemical or biological weapons that Bush argued posed a direct threat to the United States.

A senior US official said, however, that thousands of suspected weapons sites remain to be searched.

Reminding reporters that Iraq was the size of California and that the ousted Iraqi government had years to hide its illicit arsenal, Bush insisted: "Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction."

"We will find them. And it will only be a matter of time before we do so," Bush told a joint news conference, held at his Crawford, Texas ranch, with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

With postwar Iraq still facing outbreaks of lawlessness and violence, a multinational force will arrive there later this month to try and stabilize the country, Poland's foreign minister has announced.

War allies the United States, Britain and Poland are to head the 10-nation force, expected to arrive by the end of May, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said on the sidelines of a European Union foreign ministers meeting in Greece.

A senior US official has said Iraq will be divided into three, as yet undefined sectors, one patrolled by about 20,000 US soldiers and the other two by contingents under British and Polish command.

Ten nations have so far offered to supply troops. Apart from the three lead nations, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Albania have volunteered troops, said the US official, who asked not to be named.

The official said the stabilization force would be separate from the 135,000 US-led combat troops still in Iraq.

Bush has proclaimed victory in Iraq, but said the US-led war on terror was far from over and vowed to hunt down America's enemies before they could strike.

Bush closely linked the ousting of Saddam to the anti-terror campaign launched in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that still goes on," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

Although the Iraq war may be more or less over, violence, looting and lawlessness persist and shortages of vital services, such as water and electricity, have soured the euphoria felt by many Iraqis when Saddam's rule was brought to an end on April 9.

United Nations officials warned on Saturday of a potential humanitarian disaster in post-war Iraq unless there is swift action to feed its people and restart basic services.

Speaking at the first UN media briefing in Baghdad since international staff returned after the war, the officials said distribution of food rations would begin sometime this month.

About 60 per cent of Iraqis had depended on rations distributed under the UN-monitored "oil-for-food" programme. Following the outbreak of military action these dried up and they have not received rations for weeks now.

Agencies via Xinhua

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