Roundup: US impatient with Iraq, allies oppose war

　　BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States expressed Wednesday its growing impatience with Iraq's attitude towards the UN arms inspections. Meanwhile, Washington's traditional allies, France and Germany, voiced their firm opposition to any US-led military strike on Iraq without the United Nations' mandate.

　　US INCREASINGLY IMPATIENT WITH IRAQ

　　US President George W. Bush said Wednesday Iraq was clearly notdisarming while brushing aside increasingly overt opposition from its traditional allies, France and Germany, to a possible militaryattack against Iraq.

　　He showed impatience with UN weapons inspectors who want more months to check Iraq's denials that it is developing weapons of mass destruction.

　　"It's clear to me now that he is not disarming... Time is running out," the president said. "How much more time do we need to be sure he is not disarming? This looks like to me a re-run of a bad movie and I'm not interested in watching it."

　　Meanwhile, Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US military has no problem to sustain its massive forces in the Gulf for months and is even prepared to fight in hotweather.

　　"My estimate is we can do that for some time -- several months no problem," he told reporters in Washington.

　　Myers, who is also the US Air Force general, added that US troops in the Gulf could be rotated to extend its presence in the region.

　　Myers made the remarks amid increasing speculation that the difficulties and huge cost to maintain a massive military presencein the Gulf may prompt the Bush administration to think of military strikes against Iraq at an early date, possibly in the immediate weeks ahead.

　　A Post-ABC News poll on Wednesday showed declining public support for a US-led war on Iraq compared to a month ago.

　　UN CHIEF INSPECTOR UNSATISFIED WITH IRAQ'S COOPERATION

　　Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix Wednesday urged Baghdad todo more to divulge additional information on its weapons of mass destruction.

　　"If you ask are they proactive? I say no, I don't think they have come to that stage yet," Blix, executive chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), toldreporters upon his return to the UN headquarters in New York.

　　"But they have been prompt in opening practically all the siteswe wanted to come to," he added. Inspectors have found things lesssatisfactory, including lack of access to private interviews with Iraqi scientists.

　　On the recent discovery of undeclared empty chemical warheads, Blix said Iraq has appointed a commission of inquiry to look into other weapons storing places which may not have been included in the arms declaration it handed over to the UN on Dec. 7.

　　"The warheads should have been declared, and of course, as I have said, are these just pieces of ice that have been broken up or pieces of an iceberg," the UN chief inspector said.

　　"If we have the proactive cooperation, if they really make an effort, we do not need so much time as in 1991. If you do not havethat cooperation, it can drag out," he said.

　　The inspectors are due to fulfill a formal report to the UN Security Council on Jan. 27 on their work in Iraq.

　　FRANCE, GERMANY OPPOSE US WAR THREAT

　　French President Jacques Chirac reiterated on Wednesday that war is not unavoidable in Iraq, and that France and Germany have had a close consultation to seek a peaceful solution of the Iraqi crisis.

　　"The world is confronted to situation of crisis in all continents," said Chirac at the first-ever Franco-German joint parliamentary session at the palace of Versailles on the southern outskirts of Paris.

　　"But the war is not unavoidable," he told a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty on post-war alliance between France and Germany.

　　"The only framework of a legitimate solution is that of the United Nations. France and Germany, chairing the security council successively, have a close and exemplary consultation to give peace all its chance," Chirac told more than 900 deputies from thetwo countries' parliaments.

　　German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder delivered a similar speech at the ceremony.

　　Earlier in the morning, Chirac and Schroeder reaffirmed that the two countries share the same judgment over the Iraqi crisis.

　　"Both of us want a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis and weare working for it with close cooperation," said Schroeder.

　　France and Germany on Wednesday also blocked NATO from possiblemilitary assistance to a US-led war against Iraq during a heated debate among NATO ambassadors in Brussels.

　　The United States last week formally asked the 19-nation alliance to consider providing indirect military assistance in case of a war against Iraq, mainly to protect NATO ally Turkey from possible Iraqi attacks.

　　RUSSIA CALLS FOR PREVENTING WAR ON IRAQ

　　The Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Wednesday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government to immediately take all possible steps to prevent possible US military action against Iraq.

　　"The United States is preparing for military action... The goalof this action is an armed invasion of Iraq to change the country's leadership by force," the Duma said in a statement.

　　The US intends "to move to meet its own geopolitical goals in the region under the disguise of the UN's decisions," it stressed.

　　"Changing a political regime in an Arab country through direct foreign military interference would set the most dangerous precedent, which is unacceptable in the 21 century," said the statement.

　　Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said only theUN Security Council can make a decision on any use of force against Iraq.

　　"Given the information at my disposal, no decision has been made by the US leadership to conduct a military operation in Iraq," Ivanov told reporters in Yekaterinburg in Russia's Sverdlovsk region, 1,300 km east of Moscow.

　　Ivanov said that UN arms inspectors are to submit a report on Iraq to the UN Security Council on Jan. 27, and "the decision willbe taken on the basis of its study."

　　"If the international inspectors decide they need more time to work in Iraq, they should be given that opportunity," said Ivanov.Enditem