Bush heads drive for UN backing on using force

WASHINGTON -- Iraq must fully disarm to avoid war, President Bush said Tuesday, as he urged the United Nations to "honor its word" and back U.S. action against Saddam Hussein.\nAmid diplomatic wrangling over a U.S.-British resolution declaring that Saddam has missed his chance for peace, the president said it would be helpful to pass the measure "but I don't believe we need a second resolution."\nIn a brief exchange with reporters, Bush was asked what it would take to avoid war. "Full disarmament," he replied tersely. Asked to expand on the answer, the president said, "Well, there's only one thing: it's full disarmament. The man has been told to disarm. For the sake of peace, he must completely disarm."\nHe is timing his drive for U.N. backing against Iraq to the next report by U.N. weapons inspectors, hoping that it will convince the Security Council that force may be the only way to disarm Saddam.\nThe report is due on Saturday, but chief inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei are not expected to appear to answer council questions until March 7. The United States and its partners, Britain and Spain, plan to push for a council vote soon afterward.\nLater, Bush declined to specify the sacrifices facing U.S. troops, their families and the American public in the event the United States goes to war, other than saying that soldiers would be put in harm's way against what he said is a brutal dictator.\nAsked about the cost of war, Bush did not offer any estimates. He did say he believes that doing nothing is a greater risk.\nDefense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Iraq's chemical and biological weapons are more advanced now than they were during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.\n"They are, in my judgment, more lethal and dangerous today than they would have been in '91, but I don't know that for sure," he said Tuesday.\nIraq has several kinds of remote-controlled aircraft which could be used to deliver biological or chemical weapons, Rumsfeld said during a speech to the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank associated with Stanford University.\nAmerican reporters were not allowed in his White House meeting, which comes amid increased diplomatic activity by Bush and his advisers.\nBush plans a speech Wednesday night at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research center in Washington, to argue that removing Saddam from power would improve life in Iraq and help Middle East stability.