Rating Iraq's Disarmament

The White House is comparing Saddam Hussein's behavior to disarmament efforts by three other regimes, setting the stage for next week's weapons inspectors' report, which is expected to criticize Iraq for failing to cooperate.

The Bush administration document, called "What Does Disarmament Look Like?", lists the elements of what it calls genuine disarmament programs in South Africa, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine.

The document represents the latest salvo in a full-bore public relations push by the administration as it awaits the inspectors' Jan. 27 briefing and contends with skepticism from reluctant allies France and Germany.

"The world knows what successful cooperative disarmament looks like," the report contends. It says that genuine efforts to disarm include high-level political commitment, the establishment of national agencies to conduct the project and full transparency. It cites examples of how South Africa, Ukraine and Kazakhstan met these standards, and states how Iraq's performance has failed to measure up.

"Instead of high-level commitment to disarm, highly organized concealment efforts, staffed by thousands of Iraqis, are led from the very top of the Iraqi regime," the report says. It goes on to accuse the Iraq's national weapons agency of tipping off sites that inspectors want to visit and intimidating witnesses.

"Instead of cooperation and transparency Iraq has chosen to conceal and to lie," the report finds.

One specific area where Iraq's cooperation has been questioned is in its efforts to facilitate interviews of scientists.

In a 10-point agreement announced Monday, the Iraqis promised chief arms inspector Hans Blix and head nuclear monitor Mohamed ElBaradei that they would "encourage" scientists to agree to private interviews.

However, Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, the chief Iraqi liaison officer to the U.N. inspection teams, said Thursday a half-dozen scientists had so far refused to do so.

"We did our best to push the scientists," he said. "But they refused to make such interviews without the presence of (Iraqi) officials."

But deputy U.S. Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz charged that Iraq had threatened to kill its scientists if they cooperated with U.N. weapons inspectors.

Wolfowitz also said Iraq was tutoring scientists on what to say and that Iraqi intelligence officers were posing as scientists to be interviewed.

Amin also reported no progress on allowing the inspectors to use U-2 spy planes. Iraq said similar flights in the past had spied on Iraq's defenses and passed on the information to the CIA.

The extent, or lack, or Iraqi cooperation is central to a brewing feud between Washington and the leaders of France and Germany. Both countries want to give inspectors more time.

France has hinted it might veto any Security Council resolution authorizing war. Germany has no veto, but has said it won't back any war resolution. Russia's foreign minister also says there are "no serious reasons" for a war.

Despite that, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday the United States would be able to put together a strong coalition if it decided to go to war with Iraq.

"I don't think we will have to worry about going it alone," he said.

German and French officials were outraged Wednesday when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said they represented "old Europe" and said newer members of NATO would back the United States in a military strike.

Powell raised hopes that Germany and France might reach a consensus with the United States. In fact, he said, while the Bush administration feels a new U.N. resolution to authorize force probably is unnecessary, it is keeping an open mind because many Security Council nations "would prefer to see a second resolution if it comes to the use of military force."

President Bush has all but written off support from France and Germany. Instead, he is embracing less powerful nations like Spain, Italy and almost all of Eastern Europe, forging new alliances that may leave France, which has huge economic interests in Iraq, out of the action.

As CBS News Correspondent John Roberts reports, Australia Thursday became the latest nation to cast its lot with the United States, shipping out air, land and naval forces to the Gulf and boosting the White House's confidence that if it comes to war with Iraq, America won't be alone.

The White House, however, admits it still has a lot more to do to sell America on the need for war. A new CBS News/New York Times poll found 63 percent of Americans want Mr. Bush to find a diplomatic solution. Support for military action, if it becomes necessary, is still high, but it has slipped to 64 percent from just two months ago when it was at 70 percent.

What's more, Americans seem to want hard evidence that Iraq is cheating - more than two-thirds (77 percent) say if inspectors haven't found a smoking gun, they should keep looking.

With tensions rising, foreign embassies in Iraq are considering withdrawing diplomats and their families. Diplomats said they were awaiting Blix's report to gauge prospects for war.

Meanwhile, foreign ministers from Turkey, Syria, Iran, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia — met in Istanbul and urged Iraq to "demonstrate a more active approach" in providing information on its weapons programs "in full conformity" with U.N. resolutions.