Powell confident US will gain foreign support

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Colin Powell, declaring Iraq's failure to disarm is "a challenge that must be met," said Thursday that many nations would fight alongside American forces if the United States went to war without U.N. Security Council approval.\n"I don't think we will have to worry about going it alone," Powell said as France and Germany stiffened their resistance to using force to disarm Iraq. "I am sure it will be a strong coalition."\nBritish Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who met with Powell at the State Department and then joined him at a news conference, said "there are still ways that this can be resolved peacefully."\nStraw said all 15 members of the council who unanimously approved a resolution in November authorizing weapons searches "knew what they were saying" when they warned of serious consequences if Iraq did not get rid of its weapons.\nA growing dispute between the United States and some of its allies could hamper efforts to reach a consensus next week when the monitors report on 60 days of searches and the Security Council considers its next moves.\nThe White House sought to minimize the dispute. Presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer said "the president is confident that Europe will heed the call." Fleischer acknowledged, however, that "it's entirely possible that France won't be on the line."\nEager to demonstrate it does not stand alone, Fleischer said Bush thanked Australia, which announced it was dispatching air, land and naval forces to the Gulf region.\nBush also spoke to Russian President Vlaidimir Putin about cooperation on Iraq, Fleischer said, without providing any details. The Kremlin said Putin told Bush "the main criterion" in assessing the situation should be the weapons inspectors' findings.\nLeaders reacted angrily Thursday to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's dismissal of France and Germany as the "old Europe," saying the comments underscore America's arrogance.\nFinance Minister Francis Mer said he was "profoundly vexed" by the remarks.\n"I wanted to remind everyone that this 'old Europe' has resilience, and is capable of bouncing back," Mer told LCI television. "And it will show it, in time."\nRumsfeld said Germany and France were "a problem," but that the vast majority of other countries in Europe backed the United States.\nOn Thursday, Powell seemed anxious to cool down the rhetoric, although he acknowledged "there are different ideas right now about how to proceed."\nHe said the administration anxiously awaited the report of inspectors to the council and but again indicated the United States might not wait for council approval to attack Iraq.\n"Each member of the Security Council, including the United States, reserves the right to act in a way that's consistent with its international obligations as well as its own national interests," Powell said.\n"To say never mind now, or walk away from this problem or allow it to be strung out, I think, would be a defeat for the international community and a serious defeat for the United Nations," he said.\n"I enter into all of these issues with a desire to hear others and recognizing that they have principles that they believe," Powell said. "We listen to others and we find a way forward. There is a way forward if we remain united, if we don't take our eye off the ball."\n"There is still a way with which this can be resolved peacefully," Straw said. He said Saddam's weapons buildup is the issue. Of all U.S. allies, Britain has been most supportive of the administration regarding Iraq.\nLast year, France held out for eight weeks before supporting a U.S. resolution in the Security Council that authorized a new round of inspections and warned Iraq that defiance could lead to serious consequences.\nThis week at the United Nations, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin hinted at a French veto if the United States tried to push a resolution through the Security Council calling for military action against Baghdad.\nAnd French President Jacques Chirac stuck to his guns Wednesday, saying "an extra delay is necessary" for U.N. weapons inspectors to make searches.\nIn Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told a rally of his Social Democratic party: "Don't expect Germany to approve a resolution legitimatizing war. Don't expect it." Schroeder also said supporters of war with Iraq "are on the wrong path."\nPowell said in an interview that he did not see the point of further delay for more inspections.\n"How much longer should inspections go on?" he asked in an question-and-answer session with representatives of a group of American newspapers. "One month, two months, three months? What will be the difference if they (the Iraqis) are simply trying to get time in order to frustrate the purpose of the inspections?"\nNational Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, writing an article on the op-ed page of Thursday's editions of The New York Times, said that "Iraq is still treating inspections as a game. It should know that time is running out."\n"By both its actions and its inactions," she said, "Iraq is proving not that it is a nation bent on disarmament, but that it is a nation with something to hide."\nNATO has postponed its planning for a possible war in Iraq under pressure from Germany and France, which have said they want to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.\nNATO Secretary General Lord Robertson on Thursday played down differences among the allies. "This is not some sort of bust-up," Robertson told a news conference. "It is a disagreement on timing, not on substance"