New resolution asks for force

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration said Monday it has revised a proposal to the U.N. Security Council to force Iraq to disarm and said officials were circulating the text for approval.\nThe resolution carries the clear message that Iraq would be disarmed by force if it did not agree to surrender its weapons of mass destruction, said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.\n"We're also making clear it is time to wrap this up," Boucher said.\nThe revised text, developed jointly with Britain, was being circulated first among the other permanent members of the Security Council--France, Russia and China--and then was to be distributed among the 10 other members of the Security Council.\nFrance, Russia and China have all opposed threatening Iraq with force, and could kill any resolution with a veto.\nAmerican diplomats have negotiated the proposal for five weeks and the views of other nations have been taken into account, Boucher said, without providing any details.\nAt the same time, the White House and State Department said it was unrealistic to think that President Saddam Hussein will yield to international demands that he disarm.\nThe aim of the parallel statements appeared to be to dampen suggestions by Secretary of State Colin Powell that Saddam could remain in power provided the nature of his regime changed through disarmament.\nU.S. policy remains to seek a change of leadership in Baghdad, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.\n"Clearly, if Iraq did all the things the president called on them to do, which they seem to have no inclination to do, then the very nature of the regime would have changed," he said. "But I don't think it's realistic for anybody to think that Saddam Hussein has any intention of leading his regime to change."\nOn Sunday, Powell said, "All we are interested in is getting rid of those weapons of mass destruction."\nFleischer said discussion of letting Saddam stay is pointless until the Iraqi leader demonstrates he is willing to change.\n"Let the change of ways take place and ask me about it after it takes place, and we'll discuss it," Fleischer said. "This is one of the greatest stretches of the hypotheticals, of the possibles, of the unlikelies, that we could possibly, hypothetically discuss."\n"We think the Iraqi people would be a lot better off with a different leader, a different regime," Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press." on Sunday. "But the principal offense here is weapons of mass destruction," he said, "and that's what this resolution is working on. The major issue before us is disarmament."\n"The issue right now is not even how tough an inspection regime is or isn't," Powell said. "The question is, will Saddam and the Iraqi regime cooperate--really,really cooperate--and let the inspectors do their job.