A Pentagon spokesman said the attack by US warplanes hit a mobile air defense radar system at the airport, but Iraq said the airport's civilian radar system was destroyed in the raid.

President George W. Bush said he was close to agreement with the US Congress on a "strong" resolution to use force against Iraq against what he called an urgent threat to the United States.

Following talks with the leaders of both parties in Congress, Bush said: "We are moving toward a strong resolution. And all of us, and many others in Congress, are united in our determination to confront an urgent threat to America."

Again highlighting the threat from chemical and biological weapons he has accused Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein of developing, Bush added: "The demands of the UN Security Council must be followed. The Iraqi dictator must be disarmed. These requirements will be met or they will be enforced."

As the low-scale war in the no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq carried on, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to rule out backing a US bid for a tough new UN resolution on Iraq.

"We favor a rapid resolution of the situation by political and diplomatic means, on the basis of existing UN Security Council regulations and in line with the principles of international law," he said in Moscow.

"The decision to recommence the activities of UN inspectors in Iraq opens up the possibility for this decision to be put into action rapidly and allows the concerns of the international community to be allayed," said Putin.

China, which like fellow permanent member Russia has the right of veto in the Security Council, reiterated its view that the priority in dealing with the Iraq issue was to return weapons inspectors to the country as soon as possible.

"The imperative to solving this question is to readmit the UN weapons inspectors back to Iraq as soon as possible so they can carry out their work and have on-site investigation to find the facts," foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said.

She was responding to a question about China's reaction to a British dossier released Tuesday in which Prime Minister Tony Blair alleged that Iraq may be only a year or two away from possessing a nuclear bomb and has "military plans" for the use of chemical and biological arms.

As for Iraq, any new UN resolution would constitute a "flagrant violation" of a deal with Secretary General Kofi Annan under which Iraq accepted the return of inspectors and Annan promised to "remove the specter of a (US-led) military aggression" against Baghdad, the influential Iraqi daily Babel wrote.

The attack Wednesday on Basra airport in southern Iraq "hit the mobile air defense radar that they positioned at their airfield," Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan said in Washington.

"They were using it to target our aircraft over the last week or so."

"Bottom line is, we're not going to let him (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) put equipment in areas and then use it against us," Lapan said.

The spokesman for the ministry of transport and communications condemned the raid as a "terrorist act that contradicts the spirit and objectives of the International Air Transport Association.

"The civilian radar system destroyed by the American enemy" was in line with international rules, the spokesman said.

He called on relevant international bodies to "assume their responsibilities in condemning this act which contravenes international law."

Almost daily skirmishes are reported in "no-fly" zones enforced by US and British warplanes over northern and southern Iraq since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.

US officials said Wednesday that Washington was struggling in both its internal and international debate to formulate the proposed resolution.

France, another UN Security Council permanent member, wants two resolutions, one that would empower weapons inspectors to do their job and a second, if needed, to later authorize use of force.

US officials have said they would prefer one resolution that lays out Iraq's failure to comply with previous mandates, identify what it must do to satisfy them and spell out in detail the consequences of non-compliance, possibly including the use of force.

Kuwait said it has set up early warning systems to detect nuclear, biological and chemical arms as part of moves to defend itself in case of a US-Iraq conflict, but that the system had been in place for some time.

Ukraine, which has denied US charges it illegally supplied arms to Iraq, said it will ask the UN to send experts to Kiev to investigate the allegations.

Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko told reporters at the UN in New York Ukraine "resolutely disagreed with the groundless accusations" that Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma had personally approved the sales.

In London meanwhile British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Iraq had "probably the worst human rights situation anywhere in the world."

AFP

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