Powell, U.N Inspector Forge Agreement

Say Inspections Should Await Tougher Security Council Resolution

(CBS)  Secretary of State Colin Powell forged an agreement Friday with the chief U.N. weapons inspector to defer searching for illicit arms in Iraq until tough new rules are imposed.

Powell acknowledged it might take a long time to persuade the Security Council to adopt a resolution proposed by the United States. But, he said, "I'm confident we'll find a way to resolve the differences that exist."

Chief among them is refusal of France and Russia to threaten Iraq with war if it refuses to disarm. Powell said the warning was essential and must be adopted.

The chief U.N. Inspector, Hans Blix, registered his support.

"We are agreed," Blix said. "There has to be constant pressure for Iraq to comply."

Blix has already arranged with Iraq to resume inspections in about two weeks. But after meeting with Powell and other senior Bush administration officials, he said: "It would be awkward for us to go in and then find there was a new resolution."

Powell, who had been trying to put the brakes on the return of the inspection teams until they were promised unfettered access to all sites, welcomed Blix's comments.

"If the inspectors are going to go back in, they have to go back in without any restrictions on what they can do," Powell said.

Meanwhile, President Bush will deliver a rare prime-time speech Monday in Cincinnati, to further punctuate to Congress and the nation that Iraq poses a threat the U.S. must confront.

"The president thinks as Congress begins the debate ... it's important and it's helpful to members of Congress of both parties to hear what the president thinks," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.

"The president believes it is a way to communicate to members of Congress and to communicate to the country."

He stopped short of calling the speech a major address, and did not promise any new policy or evidence about Saddam's wrongdoings.

On a political trip in Boston, the president voiced new confidence that Congress will give him the resolution he wants authorizing military action against Iraq, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller. He also said he welcomes next week's Congressional debate.

President Bush reached for new levels of rhetoric to denounce Saddam, paralleling the furious words his father used before going to war with Iraq in 1991.

Mr. Bush called Saddam a "cold-blooded" killer at the fundraiser in Boston, a phrase he repeatedly has used to denounce the terrorists linked to the 9-11 attacks on the United States.

In a statement that seemed designed to rally the American people to support war, Bush said "for the sake of our freedom, for the sake of peace, if the United Nations won't make the decision, if Saddam Hussein continues to lie and deceive, the United States will lead a coalition to disarm this man before he harms America."

The U.S. diplomatic drive is in high gear but gaining little ground, as Russia and France continue to resist threatening Iraq. Those countries remain inclined to take Saddam up on his offer to admit inspectors under old U.N. resolutions that uncovered some weapons but not all the United States suspects are hidden away.

Russia's deputy foreign minister, Yuri Fedotov, was quoted by ITAR-Tass news agency Friday as saying "the existing Security Council resolutions on the Iraqi problem are quite sufficient."

Powell telephoned U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Friday, and talked Thursday to Straw, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham.

The administration's pitch to Congress for authority to use force against Iraq was faring much better. The House International Affairs Committee voted its approval 31-11 on Thursday and Senate leaders predicted wide margins of bipartisan support.

"It's up to us today to send a message to the world," said Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. He predicted Congress would give Bush the authority he wants by next week and "set in motion the beginning of the end of Saddam Hussein."

Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger said Thursday war with Iraq was inevitable.

"I don't see how the administration can pull back," Eagleburger said in a speech at a dinner of the Overseas Writers Club.

He said Vice President Dick Cheney was the driving force on U.S. policy toward Iraq but that President Bush mostly was "sailing on his own without people who knew what they were doing."

The Senate moved ahead with sporadic debate on the Iraq resolution. No votes were planned until next week.

But even as Congress lined up behind Mr. Bush, he was warned that it would be a mistake to use force against Iraq without the support of other countries.

"We don't want to do something alone, or with one other country, and bypass the U.N. and then, three years from now, have China or India or Russia or somebody else say, 'You did it, we can do it,'" House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., said.

Mr. Bush suggested Thursday he would build a coalition of world leaders willing to join the United States against Iraq — even if the United Nations did not. U.S. officials cite Britain, long steadfast in its support of the United States, and such smaller countries as Romania and Bulgaria.