Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=09/10/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=BRITAIN / BLAIR (L)

NUMBER=2-293867

BYLINE=MICHAEL DRUDGE

DATELINE=LONDON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: British Prime Minister Tony Blair says Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is an international outlaw who is illegally stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. The denunciation comes in a speech Mr. Blair will deliver today (Tuesday, at 13:30 UTC), as we hear from V-O-A's Michael Drudge in London.

TEXT: Prime Minister Blair will tell a labor union conference that the world cannot stand by and do nothing in the face of evidence that Iraq possesses chemical and biological weapons, and is trying to acquire a nuclear bomb.

Spokesmen for Mr. Blair say he will brand Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as an "international outlaw" who is violating U-N Security Council resolutions that ended the 1991 Gulf War.

Mr. Blair will face a tough audience when he speaks to the annual Trades Union Congress in the British coastal city of Blackpool.

Union leaders have joined leading clergymen and many members of Mr. Blair's own Labor Party in cautioning the prime minister not to blindly follow President Bush's lead in going up against Iraq.

The leader of the labor congress, John Monks, says Mr. Blair must assure the unions that the United Nations will support any military action.

/// MONKS ACT ///

I want to hear him say that what he's doing in these sessions at Camp David, or wherever he gets to, that he's actually saying to George Bush now, we'd better get the United Nations on board.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Blair says he is seeking broad international support in dealing with the Iraq crisis. He discussed Iraq by phone late Monday with French President Jacques Chirac and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who have both been skeptical about using force against Iraq. (Signed)

NEB/MWD/KL