Powell: Iraq Must Comply

Secretary of State Colin Powell says time is running out for Saddam Hussein.

Meanwhile, Great Britain, the staunchest U.S. ally, says it is willing to give Iraq more time although British Prime Minister Tony Blair says it shouldn’t take months to achieve compliance.

CBS News reporter Charles Wolfson, in Davos with Powell, says the secretary of state has used every opportunity to say publicly that time is running out for Iraq and that the United States is intent on purusing a military option I if Iraq continues to delay.

Powell is telling political and business leaders in Switzerland that he's lost faith in U.N. inspections -- but he didn't say they should end.

His speech at the World Economic Forum comes on the eve of a report top inspectors are scheduled to deliver to the U.N. Security Council.

Some U.S. allies say inspections should be given more time to work. But Powell says it's not time that's needed -- it's "with evasion and lies."

He also warned that the Iraqi leader could take advantage of international inaction by using his weapons or sharing his technology with terrorists.

Powell says the U-S still hopes to disarm Iraq peacefully but says it "will not shrink from war."

In Iraq, three Iraqi scientists rejected a request by U.N. weapons inspectors to undergo private interviews to aid the U.N. search for evidence of forbidden arms programs, the United Nations said Saturday.

Both the United Nations and the United States have pressed Iraq to persuade its scientists to speak privately to the inspectors, hoping the absence of Iraqi officials would encourage them to be more candid about the nature of their work.

Iraq's government maintains it's doing everything it can to "encourage" the scientists but says they are refusing because of fears their information could be distorted.

But there are unconfirmed reports that Baghdad has been intimidating the scientists not to cooperate with the U.N., perhaps with death threats against them and their families.

In other developments:

Two men - one carrying three knives and the other shouting "Save me!" - were detained after trying separately to enter the U.N. inspectors' Baghdad compound.

New York's Daily News reports in its Saturday editions that U.S. troops would try to seize Iraqi oil fields before Saddam's elite Republican Guards could blow them up if war begins.

Saddam Hussein's top science adviser said Saturday he feared a United States attack might now be inevitable, regardless of what United Nations inspectors conclude, The New York Times reports in its Sunday editions.

"One tends to think it is coming, no matter what we do," the adviser, Gen. Amir al-Saadi, said in an interview with foreign reporters.

Iraq's parliament speaker warned that his country would use "every method" to defend itself against an attack.

The Daily News also says in its Saturday editions that Saddam's "playboy son" Uday is threatening that, if the U.S. invades Iraq, the U.S. would be hurt so badly it would make 9-11 seem like a "picnic."

"They will be hurt and pay a price they will never imagine," the News reports Uday said on the al-Shahab (Youth) TV station he runs. He didn't specify whether he meant via terrorism or losses in war.

And for the second time in 24 hours, U.S. warplanes attacked an Iraqi military target inside the no-fly zone in southern Iraq, the U.S. Central Command said.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry had said late Friday that three scientists the U.N. inspectors wanted to question in private Saturday were "encouraged" to do so. But in the end all three refused, insisting government officials be present, said Hiro Ueki, spokesman for the U.N. inspectors in Baghdad.

He said two scientists refused to be questioned without Iraqi officials present, so the inspectors canceled the interviews altogether.

A team from the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency flew by helicopter to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq to interview the third scientist privately, but he would not agree, Ueki's statement said.

"The individual concerned declined the request. The interview was then conducted with a representative of the NMD (Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate) present," Ueki's statement said, adding that the inspectors "will continue to seek interviews in private."

Ueki's statement said officials from the Iraqi NMD flew on the same helicopter. The United Nations last week canceled an inspection in the no-fly zone when the Iraqi side insisted on following in their own helicopters. Saturday's trip, with the Iraqis on board the U.N. aircraft, was in line with an agreement reached last week to settle the problem.

At the inspectors' compound on Baghdad's outskirts, there was no explanation for the attempt by the two men to force their way inside. Nor was it known if the two incidents were connected.

The first man, armed with three knives and a piece of metal, was apprehended as he tried to get through the front gate and was taken away by Iraqi police.

About 45 minutes later, a young man ran in front of inspectors' vehicles, shouting "Save me!", and was allowed to enter one vehicle. He was carrying a notebook, which U.N. officials said was empty. Ueki said the man was turned over to Iraqi authorities.

The subject of private interviews has become a major issue in advance of a report to the U.N. Security Council Monday by chief inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei on Iraq's compliance with U.N. Resolution 1441 giving arms inspectors the right to search for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons anywhere in Iraq.

Washington, which accuses Iraq of hiding such weapons, has taken a hard line on the interview issue. On Friday, it rejected the contention by Saddam Hussein's regime that it cannot force scientists to give private interviews.

"President Bush believes Iraq's refusal to allow Iraqi scientists to submit to private interviews with U.N. inspectors is unacceptable," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

All indications are that Monday's report to the Security Council won't contain conclusive proof that Iraq has banned weapons, says CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer, who is in Baghdad. However, she reports, it will say that the Iraqis are not cooperating fully. That may be grounds for suspicion. But, Palmer says, the U.S. will have to decide if it's ground for war.

CBS News reporter Charles Wolfson says Powell claimed at least 11 nations would stand by the U.S. in the event of war, even without U.N. backing. But when pressed, says Wolfson, Powell declined to name them.

Russia, France and Germany are insisting the inspectors be given more time. After meeting Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said there was "growing support" in Europe for Germany's opposition to military action.

The Washington Post reports in its Saturday editions that despite the wave of deployment orders issued by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the past five weeks, the Pentagon has only begun sending major combat elements to the Persian Gulf and can't assemble the force required for an invasion of Iraq until late next month or early March.

A few thousand people opposed to a war in Iraq staged several demonstrations across Germany on Saturday, including one that blocked the road to a NATO base. Protesters also rallied in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, to express solidarity with Iraqis.

As the United States continued assembling the biggest ground, naval and air force since it led a coalition to defeat Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War, Saadoun Hammadi, speaker of Iraq's parliament, said that if war comes, Iraqis "will fight fiercely until the end" and use "every method to inflict heavy damages on the enemy."

Speaking during a visit to New Delhi, India, Hammadi did not elaborate on what he meant by "every method." The U.S. government has repeatedly warned the Iraqi military not to use any chemical or biological weapons it may have against U.S. troops.

Unconfirmed reports say Saddam has issued special suits to troops to protect them from chemical or biological weapons, leading to speculation Iraq would use the very weapons it denies having.

Meanwhile, Saturday's daily inspections took U.N. teams to Al-Qaddissiya University, 150 miles south of Baghdad; the Northern Oil Company in Mosul Province 240 miles north of the capital; and a missile site in the al-Dejehiel area, 36 miles north of Baghdad.

They also revisited the Qa Qa chemical complex, 40 miles south of Baghdad, where inspectors have checked the facilities about a dozen times since November. Western intelligence reports said Qa Qa might be the site of Iraqi chemical weapons work, but no such violations have been reported thus far.

And in Kuwait, shots were reportedly fired Saturday morning near a U.S. military convoy on the outskirts of Kuwait city, but the circumstances surrounding the incident remained unclear and no injuries were reported, U.S. and Kuwaiti officials said.

Sgt. David Dismukes, a U.S. military spokesman, said that, according to their report, the shots were fired from a car, adding that no injuries have been reported.