As world attention focuses on Friday's report from UN weapons
inspectors, the discovery of an Iraqi missile may be the "smoking
gun" the United States has sought to launch a war on Baghdad.
Friday's crucial UN Security Council meeting, with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in the chair, is expected to hear evidence that the Al-Samoud missile has a range "well beyond" the 150 kilometres (90 miles) permitted by UN resolutions -- and that could trigger war, the British press said Thursday.
"The discovery of a banned weapons system on the eve of (chief UN weapons inspector) Hans Blix's crucial presentation is tantamount to the inspectors finding a 'smoking gun,'" said The Times of London.
Any indication in Blix's report Friday that Iraq is in breach of UN resolution 1441 would almost certainly prompt Britain and the United States to bring a war resolution to the Security Council in days, the newspaper said.
On January 27, Blix told the council that "significant questions remain" as to whether Iraq retained Scud-type missiles after the 1991 Gulf War, when its forces were driven out of Kuwait by a US-led coalition.
Tests of missiles under development exceeded the limit laid down by council Resolution 687, he said.
However, Russia's commissioner on the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) said it had received a report from experts and were still analysing data.
"So far UNMOVIC has not reached any conclusion," he said.
Blix is to brief the Security Council in what many diplomats expect to be a confrontational meeting between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his French, Russian and German counterparts.
Powell said the Security Council was in grave risk of losing its credibility through inaction and reaffirmed that the United States was determined to use force to disarm Iraq.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that UN resolution 1441 on disarming Iraq contained no automatic clause for declaring a war and insisted weapons inspections were making progess.
He also said there was no need for an official decision to resolve NATO's row over how to defend Turkey in case of war, which has deadlocked the alliance since Monday.
The alliance was meeting for a fourth straight day in Brussels to try to resolve the standoff, which has strained the trans-Atlantic alliance.
US military officials announced US and British warplanes struck an Iraqi surface-to-surface missile system that had been moved into striking range of US troops in Kuwait for the second time in two days on Wednesday.
The missile base, located near Basra in southern Iraq, was struck for the first time Tuesday, but coalition warplanes returned to knock out its radar, they said.
Calls by France, Germany, Russia and China for weapons inspectors to be given more time to do their job before rushing to war were endorsed by former US president Bill Clinton.
He said the United States and its European critics should "stop screaming at each other" and urged the administration of President George W. Bush to do its part by allowing UN inspections in Iraq to continue a bit longer.
But Clinton also said Europeans, France and Germany in particular, should demonstrate they are serious about disarming Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, who led Baghdad's diplomatic efforts to prevent the Gulf War in 1991, was Thursday bidding to stall a new military assault as he began a four-day trip to Italy and the Vatican.
The wily diplomatic campaigner will meet Pope John Paul II and senior Vatican officials on Friday, before giving Iraq's first response to the UN Security Council findings later in the day.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people are scheduled to take part in mass rallies for peace being held across Europe and the rest of the world.
Organisers and peace campaigners are proclaiming the weekend demonstrations will mark the biggest ever day of anti-war protests.
In Europe, where the initiative originated, the movement will be led by the 500,000 demonstrators due in London, with major demonstrations also planned in Rome, where a million protesters are expected, in Spain, where nearly 60 marches are to take place across the country, and in Paris.
There are also demonstrations scheduled for Athens, Dublin, Moscow, Prague, Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna, Budapest, Sofia, Stockholm, Vilnius and Warsaw.
In the United States, organisers are hoping for a crowd of hundreds of thousands in New York, with other marches in Los Angeles and Chicago and another in San Francisco due on Sunday.
In Asia, marches are due to take place in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Dili, Lahore, Sydney, Hobart, Bangkok and Perth; and in Africa in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Kigali. Cities in the Middle East where protests are planned include Tel Aviv, Cairo and Istanbul.
But the backlash against European opposition to American plans for invading Iraq has begun, with one powerful US congressman suggesting it was time to impose sanctions on French wine and mineral water imports - Sapa-AFP.
Friday's crucial UN Security Council meeting, with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in the chair, is expected to hear evidence that the Al-Samoud missile has a range "well beyond" the 150 kilometres (90 miles) permitted by UN resolutions -- and that could trigger war, the British press said Thursday.
"The discovery of a banned weapons system on the eve of (chief UN weapons inspector) Hans Blix's crucial presentation is tantamount to the inspectors finding a 'smoking gun,'" said The Times of London.
Any indication in Blix's report Friday that Iraq is in breach of UN resolution 1441 would almost certainly prompt Britain and the United States to bring a war resolution to the Security Council in days, the newspaper said.
On January 27, Blix told the council that "significant questions remain" as to whether Iraq retained Scud-type missiles after the 1991 Gulf War, when its forces were driven out of Kuwait by a US-led coalition.
Tests of missiles under development exceeded the limit laid down by council Resolution 687, he said.
However, Russia's commissioner on the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) said it had received a report from experts and were still analysing data.
"So far UNMOVIC has not reached any conclusion," he said.
Blix is to brief the Security Council in what many diplomats expect to be a confrontational meeting between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his French, Russian and German counterparts.
Powell said the Security Council was in grave risk of losing its credibility through inaction and reaffirmed that the United States was determined to use force to disarm Iraq.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that UN resolution 1441 on disarming Iraq contained no automatic clause for declaring a war and insisted weapons inspections were making progess.
He also said there was no need for an official decision to resolve NATO's row over how to defend Turkey in case of war, which has deadlocked the alliance since Monday.
The alliance was meeting for a fourth straight day in Brussels to try to resolve the standoff, which has strained the trans-Atlantic alliance.
US military officials announced US and British warplanes struck an Iraqi surface-to-surface missile system that had been moved into striking range of US troops in Kuwait for the second time in two days on Wednesday.
The missile base, located near Basra in southern Iraq, was struck for the first time Tuesday, but coalition warplanes returned to knock out its radar, they said.
Calls by France, Germany, Russia and China for weapons inspectors to be given more time to do their job before rushing to war were endorsed by former US president Bill Clinton.
He said the United States and its European critics should "stop screaming at each other" and urged the administration of President George W. Bush to do its part by allowing UN inspections in Iraq to continue a bit longer.
But Clinton also said Europeans, France and Germany in particular, should demonstrate they are serious about disarming Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, who led Baghdad's diplomatic efforts to prevent the Gulf War in 1991, was Thursday bidding to stall a new military assault as he began a four-day trip to Italy and the Vatican.
The wily diplomatic campaigner will meet Pope John Paul II and senior Vatican officials on Friday, before giving Iraq's first response to the UN Security Council findings later in the day.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people are scheduled to take part in mass rallies for peace being held across Europe and the rest of the world.
Organisers and peace campaigners are proclaiming the weekend demonstrations will mark the biggest ever day of anti-war protests.
In Europe, where the initiative originated, the movement will be led by the 500,000 demonstrators due in London, with major demonstrations also planned in Rome, where a million protesters are expected, in Spain, where nearly 60 marches are to take place across the country, and in Paris.
There are also demonstrations scheduled for Athens, Dublin, Moscow, Prague, Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna, Budapest, Sofia, Stockholm, Vilnius and Warsaw.
In the United States, organisers are hoping for a crowd of hundreds of thousands in New York, with other marches in Los Angeles and Chicago and another in San Francisco due on Sunday.
In Asia, marches are due to take place in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Dili, Lahore, Sydney, Hobart, Bangkok and Perth; and in Africa in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Kigali. Cities in the Middle East where protests are planned include Tel Aviv, Cairo and Istanbul.
But the backlash against European opposition to American plans for invading Iraq has begun, with one powerful US congressman suggesting it was time to impose sanctions on French wine and mineral water imports - Sapa-AFP.
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