Rumsfeld: We're Not Doing This Alone

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld dismissed suggestions Monday that the United States planned to intervene by itself in Iraq.

"Trying to promote and perpetuate the concept of unilateralism is not on the mark," Rumsfeld told reporters after meeting in Warsaw with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski at the presidential palace.

Rumsfeld was enlisting the support of Poland, a new NATO ally, as part of the Bush administration's campaign for United Nations action to disarm Iraq.

"We certainly did discuss the subject of Iraq and the problem it poses for the United Nations," he said, "and the efforts that the United States and other friendly nations are making in the United Nations to find the appropriate way to have the U.N. resolutions enforced with respect to disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction."

Asked whether Poland would provide political or military support for U.S. military action in Iraq, Kwasniewski's national security adviser, Marek Siwiec, said the Iraq discussion was taking place in the United Nations. "All I can say is that we are a very steadfast ally," he added.

U.S. officials traveling with Rumsfeld said there was no intention, either in Monday's meetings with Polish leaders or in NATO meetings Tuesday and Wednesday, to seek allied support for military action. The aim, they said, is to press the U.N. Security Council for quick action to enforce the disarmament resolutions Iraq accepted at the end of the 1991 Gulf War.

Rumsfeld also said he would not meet his German counterpart at the NATO meetings, using an icy tone to express displeasure at how criticism of U.S. policy on Iraq had become a core issue in Germany's just-completed election.

"I would have to say that the way it (the election) was conducted was definitely unhelpful and, as the White House indicated, has had the effect of poisoning the relationship," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld spoke shortly before the resignation of German Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, whose reported remarks linking President Bush to Hitler enraged Washington.

In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair told his Cabinet on Monday that policies aimed at containing Saddam's weapons of mass destruction have failed and the Iraqi leader must be stopped.

Briefing senior ministers one day before the release of a long-awaited dossier on Iraq's weapons programs, Blair said it was clear from intelligence reports that Saddam was continuing to build his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, or W.M.D., Blair's spokesman said.

"The truth is the policy of containment has not worked. He has been able to make progress in his W.M.D. program and has to be stopped," the spokesman said, quoting the prime minister's comments to the special Cabinet meeting at Blair's 10 Downing St. office Monday night.

Blair, who has been a firm supporter of President Bush's tough line against Iraq, has faced some dissent within his Cabinet about possible U.S.-led military action.

The Blair spokesman, briefing reporters on condition that he not be identified, did not immediately say whether that dissent had emerged during the leader's closed meeting with his Cabinet on Monday night.

In Washington, meanwhile, lawmakers came closer to giving Mr. Bush the congressional authorization he wants to take on Saddam, saying they will limit the mandate to Iraq to satisfy Democrats who are uneasy about Mr. Bush's request to restore security to the whole region.

On Sunday's television talk shows, Democrats said Mr. Bush needs to more aggressively explain his plans in order to win domestic and international support for any action.

The administration has proposed a resolution that would authorize the president "to use all means that he determines to be appropriate, including force, in order to ... defend the national security interests of the United States against the threat posed by Iraq, and restore international peace and security in the region."

"It's much too broad; there's no limit at all on presidential powers," said Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"There needs to be some changes ... it's not even limited to Iraq," Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said in a broadcast interview.

Mr. Bush wants the U.N. Security Council to enforce bans on weapons of mass destruction against Iraq. The United States believes Iraq is stockpiling deadly chemical and biological weapons, and is rebuilding its nuclear weapons program.

Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said keeping "region" in the resolution would set too broad a precedent.

The administration is amenable to change, and "I predict that won't be the language," Biden, a Delaware Democrat, said in a broadcast interview.

Some Republicans sympathized with the need to contain the language. "These are very, very important definitions, because it will guide the president and this nation probably into war," Sen. Chuck Hagel in a broadcast interview.

Even those comfortable with the proposed language said they would accommodate change to speed it through. The White House wants the legislation to pass before Congress recesses before elections Nov. 5.