US Rebuffs UN Peace Appeals

UNITED NATIONS, March 19 — Overshadowed by the threat of war, the foreign ministers of Russia, France, and Germany offered encomiums this morning on the need for peace, diplomacy, and continued weapons inspections in Iraq.

But their appeals for continued diplomatic engagement with Baghdad were summarily dismissed by the United States ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte. Mr. Negroponte said that a disarmament program presented today by Hans Blix, the United Nation's chief inspector for biological and chemical weapons, was now irrelevant.

"The fact is that the situation on the ground will change and so will the remaining disarmament tasks," Mr. Negroponte told the Security Council. "We have no choice but to set this work program aside for the time being."

Instead, Mr. Negroponte discussed the United States plans for rebuilding Iraq when war concludes, elaborating on proposals the White House has been sharing with Secretary General Kofi Annan for more than six weeks.

He said that about $120 million has already been set aside for direct aid for food programs and for indirect aid administered after the war through the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.

Diplomats said that the United States and Britain are also drafting a proposal to redefine an 8-year-old oil-for-food program to allow the use of Iraqi oil proceeds to fund humanitarian aid programs after the war. There are tens of billions of dollars in Iraqi oil proceeds currently held in a United Nations escrow account and Washington hopes to tap that account to defray the war's humanitarian costs.

Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Aldouri, disparaged the American aid plans, saying that the White House's true goals are nothing more than the occupation of Iraq and control of its oil fields.

"The executioner cannot help the victim except by killing it," said Mr. Aldouri.

With United Nations deliberations are no longer the center of world attention that they were only a short week ago, and with the United States and its allies poised to launch a massive invasion of Iraq, the mood was decidedly somber here today.

"Whatever our differing views on this complex issue may be, we must all feel that this is a sad day for the United Nations and the international community," said Mr. Annan. "I know that millions of people around the world share this sense of disappointment and are deeply alarmed by the prospect of imminent war."

He saluted the work of Mr. Blix and his counterpart, Mohamad ElBaradei, head of the United Nations' nuclear weapons inspection team, and said his main concern is now "the plight of the Iraqi people."

Mr. Annan's sentiments were echoed by Mr. Blix as he outlined, perhaps for the last time, Iraq's remaining disarmament tasks.

"I naturally feel sadness that three and half months of work carried out in Iraq have not brought the assurances needed about the absence of weapons of mass destruction or other proscribed items in Iraq, that no more time is available for our inspections, and that armed action now seems imminent.," Mr. Blix said.

Mr. Blix's 77-page report outlined outstanding issues related to Iraqi missiles and warheads; spray devices and drones; chemical weapons, including VX, Sarin and mustard agents, and biological agents, including anthrax, botulinum toxin and smallpox. He said inspectors still have not received enough information from Iraq to help resolve remaining disarmament questions. He also noted that all of his weapons inspectors have been safely evacuated from Iraq to Cyprus.

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin rejected repeated White House criticisms that his country was responsible for creating the diplomatic logjam at the United Nations. He said such criticism was unfair and part of a White House effort to find "scapegoats" behind the impasse. And he reiterated his opposition to war, saying that it will create conditions that foster increased terrorism.

"The choice before us is between two visions of the world," Mr. de Villepin added, in a speech that drew mild applause from the Security Council's gallery. "To those who choose to use force and think that they can resolve the world's complexity through swift, preventive action, we offer in contrast resolute action and a long-term approach."

German and Russian diplomats offered similar views, saying that they believe that Saddam Hussein's regime did not pose a threat to other countries and that weapons inspections were effective.

"The policy of military intervention has no credibility," said Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister. "War is terror. It is a great tragedy for those affected and for us all."

Although other global flashpoints have receded from view as the imminent war with Iraq holds center stage, North Korea continues to pose a diplomatic challenge to the White House.

Pyongyang announced today that it retains the right to develop long-range missiles, adding to recent concerns that the country is rebuilding its nuclear arsenal.

North Korea's "missile program is of purely peaceful nature and does not pose a threat to anyone," the country's state-run newspaper said today.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell warned North Korea on Tuesday against any missile tests. He said that if Pyongyang reprocesses nuclear fuel it will undermine the likelihood that the United States and North Korea can find a peaceful solution to their differences.

The nuclear crisis in North Korea surfaced last October, when the White House said the country was attempting to enrich uranium. After Washington imposed a fuel embargo, North Korea expelled United Nations weapons inspectors, withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and made moves that indicated it was attempting to resurrect a shuttered nuclear reactor.