Powell implores UN to disarm Hussein

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary of State Colin Powell implored other nations Monday to face up to Saddam Hussein, saying the world body "must not shrink" from its responsibility to disarm Iraq.\n"We cannot be shocked into impotence because we're afraid of the difficult choices ahead of us," Powell told members of the United Nations Security Council.\nPowell, who faced a new burst of skepticism in talks with other leaders earlier Monday, was urging reluctant nations to focus on Baghdad's failure to disarm and to prepare to weigh the consequences by the end of the month.\nThe secretary said the U.N. must come to grips with a regime that he said has acquired, developed and stocked weapons of mass destruction and trampled human rights at home.\n"So no matter how difficult the road ahead may be with respect to Iraq, we must not shrink from a need to travel down that road," Powell said.\n"Hopefully, there will be a peaceful solution," he said. "But if Iraq does not come into full compliance, we must not shrink from the responsibilities that we set before ourselves" when the Security Council called for the disarmament of Iraq.\nPowell cited Saddam's Iraq as a case in point.\n"Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists or states that support terrorists would represent a mortal danger to us all," he said. "We must make the United Nations even more effective, we must build even closer international cooperation to keep these weapons out of the hands of terrorists"