Blair, Chirac back Clinton on Iraq

“They talked about the diplomatic part of this and that’s where their focus is right now,” a White House official said of the call to Blair which Clinton made aboard Air Force One on a fund-raising trip to California. Clinton and Blair agreed “100 per cent” on “standing tough together” and will devote the coming days to similar talks with other world leaders, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

No military options were discussed, the official said, stressing that only diplomatic avenues will be considered “until there is no hope”. The French President “expressed to President Clinton France’s solidarity with the United States in this crisis,” Spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said, who described the 30-minute telephone call as “useful and constructive”.

Chirac also put forward possible ways of resolving the crisis. He added that France wanted to see the continuation of a deal agreed with the United Nations to allow Iraq to sell limited quantities of oil to buy badly-needed food and medicines. Clinton was in “full agreement” with his French counterpart on the issue, Colonna said, adding the two presidents had agreed to stay in touch.

Sabre-rattling in Baghdad escalated the standoff, which began on October 29 when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein barred US experts from the UN inspections teams tasked with ridding the country of its weapons of mass destruction. That crisis came to a head on Thursday, when Saddam expelled the US experts from Iraq, prompting the departure on Friday of the UN team which left the weapons sites unmonitored.

According to a poll in the US magazine Newsweek, 82 percent of Americans would support a military strike against Iraq if Baghdad shoots down a US U-2 spy plane on loan to the United Nations.

On Saturday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Al-Sahhaf reiterated threats to shoot down the U-2 plane plane if it flies, as expected, above the country on Sunday. However Pentagon officials have emphasized that that Sunday is only a “window” in which the U-2 patrol could begin.

US Defence Secretary William Cohen has signalled that any interference with the flight will “invite a prompt response of a military nature”. That threat is bolstered by a beefed-up US presence in the Gulf, where Clinton despatched a second aircraft carrier on Friday.

Clinton has accused Saddam of staging the standoff in a bid to divide the international community and win an end to the UN sanctions regime imposed following Iraq’ s invasion of Kuwait.