Bush Blasts No-Fly Zone Fire

Washington — Even as United Nations weapons inspectors pressed Iraq yesterday to live up to its word and allow unfettered searches, the Bush administration was arguing once again that President Saddam Hussein can't be trusted — this time because of his continued attacks on U.S. warplanes patrolling no-fly zones.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Iraq was continuing to flout the UN's will by firing on U.S. and British jets over northern and southern Iraq, including 67 times just in the two weeks since Iraq agreed to allow weapons inspectors to return "without conditions."

"With each missile launched at our air crews, Iraq expresses its contempt for the UN resolutions, a fact that must be kept in mind as their latest inspection offers are evaluated," Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon.

Iraq disputes the United States' right to conduct the patrols — designed to protect Kurdish and Shiite populations from Hussein — saying they infringe on Iraqi sovereignty. So far this year, Iraq has fired on the patrols more than 400 times, and U.S. and British warplanes have responded by bombing Iraqi military equipment and installations on 44 separate occasions. Iraq has never downed a no-fly-zone patrol.

U.S. retaliation has increased in severity and frequency in recent weeks, drawing criticism yesterday from Russia's Foreign Ministry. In a statement, the ministry charged that the stepped-up bombing runs were making it harder to forge a political and diplomatic solution to prevent war.

Rumsfeld responded angrily to the Russian charges, calling it "nonsensical" to blame the Americans and the British for acting in self-defense when it is the Iraqis who are attacking the patrols in the first place.

Rumsfeld long has been doubtful of Iraq's willingness to grant the unhindered weapons inspections the Bush administration wants, and yesterday he said it was "just patently false" that Iraq would ever allow such intrusive inspections, despite its claims.

In Vienna, however, that is what the UN team led by Hans Blix was pressing the Iraqis to do during the first day of talks on the return of inspectors. Blix demanded the right to move freely around Hussein's palaces and other sites.

After President George W. Bush pressed the UN for tougher action last month, Hussein pledged unconditional access to sites around Iraq. But in recent days Baghdad has rejected any new UN resolutions to broaden and toughen the inspection regime. Iraqi resistance has thrown into question whether the eight sprawling presidential palaces — up to now off-limits to surprise visits — would be open to renewed inspections.

"We are trying to restore as much of the anytime, anyplace and unfettered access as possible," said Mohamed El-Baradei, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which is hosting the talks. "I think we are making progress, but we still have a lot of work to do."

Gen. Amir al-Saadi, a technical adviser to Hussein, said the talks were "businesslike" but declined to give further details.

One senior diplomat close to the talks said UN inspectors were firming up plans to return to Baghdad in the third week of October.

The Vienna talks come against a backdrop of increasingly strong warnings from Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who have proposed a tough new UN resolution that threatens military action unless Iraq disarms and that rewrites the ground rules for inspections. China, Russia and France — which have the power of veto on the Security Council — have reacted coldly to the new language.