Annan Says U.N. Not U.S. Puppet Over Iraq Dossier

REUTERS 11dec02

LONDON - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday that Security Council members had criticized the United States for breaking ranks and grabbing Iraq's report on its weapons programs, intended only for weapons inspectors.

But he rejected charges that by allowing the maneuver the United Nations had proved it was Washington's puppet.

Diplomats and U.S. officials said Monday that after an intense lobbying campaign, the United States received an early and uncut copy of Iraq's 11,807-page weapons declaration and whisked it to Washington for analysis.

"The consensus of the group was that in substance perhaps the decision was fine, but the approach, and the style and the form was wrong because the Council had decided last Friday that nobody would get it," he told an invited audience in New York.

The speech, followed by a question and answer session, was given to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the British Broadcasting Corporation's World Service. It was recorded in London and will be broadcast Wednesday.

"It was unfortunate and I hope it is not going to be repeated," Annan said of the way the U.S. had circumvented the U.N.'s decision.

"But I should also say that for those who maintain that the U.N. is being pushed around by the United States, I will remind them to look back to the eight-week period when we were discussing this issue and Washington was quite frustrated that things were not moving fast enough."

The dossier, supposed to give a full account of Iraq's past and present weapons programs, was ordered by the Security Council as part of Resolution 1441 which demanded that Iraq disarm or face serious consequences.

As part of the decision to give the United States the document, Washington was put in charge of making duplicates for its four fellow permanent members of the Security Council, Britain, China, France and Russia -- all nuclear nations.

The decision upset several of the non-permanent members of the 15-member Security Council, including Norway and Syria. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said Washington -- busy gearing up for a possible war against Saddam -- had gained control over the document in "an unprecedented blackmail operation."

But Annan said the final decision on editing the documents to remove sensitive information on nuclear and biological programs would rest with the inspectors, not the United States, and President Saddam Hussein had nothing to fear if he had nothing to hide.

"He has to cooperate not just for a week but over the long term. We are testing him," he said.

The Ghanaian U.N. chief said force would be used only as a last resort -- but it would be used if necessary.

"I do not rule out that there are circumstances when everything else fails and the use of force becomes necessary. But that must be the absolutely last resort," he said.