- (AFP) -- "The United Nations can meet and discuss,
but we don't need their permission" to act if Iraq fails to comply
with the UN-mandated weapons inspection program, White House chief of staff
Andrew Card told NBC television.
-
- Secretary of State Colin Powell and White House national
security adviser Condoleezza Rice also hit that point on other talk shows.
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- The UN Security Council voted unanimously Friday to demand
Iraq's full cooperation in allowing UN weapons inspectors access to any
site in Iraq in their search for banned nuclear, biological or chemical
weapons.
-
- Rice was explicit about the US threat to use military
might to enforce the declaration.
-
- President George W. Bush "has reserved all of his
options to use the full authority granted to him by the US Congress,"
allowing him to use military force if necessary, she told Fox television.
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- "This president has been deadly serious about the
intention and insistence that Iraq will face serious consequences should
they not comply again."
-
- But she appeared to think it would not come down to unilateral
US action, saying: "In the Security Council resolution, it says that
in this meeting, serious consequences will be recalled, ... so I expect
that we will be able to do this in a quite multilateral way."
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