Military

IRAQ

¨         Boosted by apparent support from top U.N arms inspectors, the United States on Monday demanded that the United Nations disarm Iraq or watch the world's superpower do it. The weapons inspectors told the UN Security Council that Iraq should be warned of consequences if it did not cooperate -- a position aligned with Washington, which is pressing for a tough, new U.N. resolution against President Saddam Hussein. "The message from America is this," President Bush told Republican supporters. "If the United Nations doesn't have the will or the courage to disarm (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein and Saddam Hussein will not disarm ... the United States will lead a coalition and disarm Saddam Hussein." Echoing U.S. impatience at weeks of wrangling, Britain warned that the United Nations could become sidelined unless diplomats agreed this week on a U.S.-British resolution designed to make Iraq give up its alleged weapons of massive destruction programs.  Prime Minister Blair's spokesman said Britain wanted negotiators to "bring matters to a head" quickly, adding, "It is coming to the stage where we will have to decide whether this is going to be resolved through the UN or not."  Comments by chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix and Mohammed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in charge of inspecting any Iraqi nuclear arms, cheered U.S. and British officials. "I think it helps us if Iraq is conscious that no cooperation will entail reactions by the council," Blix told reporters after a Security Council meeting.(Reuters 0027 291002 Oct 02 GMT)

EU-TERRORISM

¨         Emergency response teams from across the EU trained for a second day Monday as part of a massive drill in how to respond to terror attacks that employ chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. Dozens of rescue workers from Austria, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden joined 800 French forces at a military base in southern France for exercises dubbed "Euratox 2002." The exercises, planned months ago, sought to test the ability of the EU's new crisis center, set up in Brussels after Sept. 11, to cope with an attack in which every member state could be solicited for help. "The events of Sept. 11, Bali and recently the Moscow theater show that these threats are no longer fiction," Pia Brucella, head of the Civil Protection Unit at the European Commission, told reporters.(AP 281830 Oct 02 GMT)

OTHER NEWS

¨         International officials warned Bosnia of consequences Monday if the country doesn't track down and punish those who allegedly violated a UN weapons embargo by selling military equipment to Iraq. Revelations that Bosnia was involved in the affair surfaced two weeks ago, when NATO-led peacekeepers conducted a surprise inspection of the Orao aviation firm in Bijeljina in northeast Bosnia. The raid was based on U.S. intelligence reports that the company was illegally selling equipment to the Iraqis. In a letter to the government, the commander of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia, U.S. Lt. Gen. William Ward, offered the local authorities documents his troops obtained in the raid which he said included evidence that Orao had violated the embargo. Ward said he expects a thorough investigation and effective actions to punish the violators or he "will not hesitate to use the powers granted to me ... to impose other necessary changes and punishments in the event that those applied by the Bosnian Serb government are inadequate."(AP 281455 Oct 02 GMT)