Bush skeptical about Saddam

White House keeps up pressure on Iraq

Bush: "We're not interested in hide and seek inside Iraq."

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VIDEO President Bush says he is not optimistic that Iraq will comply fully with the U.N. deadline to declare all nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. CNN's Skip Loescher reports. (December 3) PLAY VIDEO CNN's Rym Brahimi has more on U.N. weapons inspectors first unannounced visit to one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces (December 3) PLAY VIDEO SPECIAL REPORT •  War Tracker •  On the Scene Map •  Commanders: U.S. | Iraq •  Weapons: 3D Models •  Coalition casualties | POW/MIA •  Special Report

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House warned U.S. allies Tuesday not to be overly optimistic about Iraq's initial cooperation with weapons inspectors.

At a campaign stop in Shreveport, Louisiana, President Bush said: "To countries around the world, I want them to understand the nature of the man who runs Iraq, the nature of a man who doesn't tell the truth, says he won't have weapons of mass destruction. He's got them."

Since the beginning of weapons inspections five days ago, administration officials have been concerned that Saddam Hussein may be scoring political points internationally by acting as though he has nothing to hide.

The Iraq regime has denied amassing weapons of mass destruction, a claim disputed by the U.S. and British governments.

"There is a good indication that the Iraqis are cooperating," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters Tuesday. "This is only the beginning."

Bush repeatedly has expressed skepticism that Saddam will voluntarily disarm. The White House strategy is to remind U.N. Security Council members that Saddam has a history of deceiving and hiding his weapons and that inspectors should not take their initial findings at face value.

"The issue is not the inspectors," the president said. "The issue is whether or not Mr. Saddam Hussein will disarm like he said he would. We're not interested in hide-and-seek inside Iraq."

Iraqi officials say they will beat the deadline set by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441 to declare any chemical, biological and nuclear weapons by releasing a report Saturday -- a day early.

The White House is taking a wait-and-see approach, but officials still say they doubt the declaration will be credible.

The White House says it has reason to be skeptical.

The president points to the Iraqi anti-aircraft fire at U.S. and British air patrols in the Iraqi "no-fly" zones and the tone of Iraq's written pledge to abide by the December 8 disarmament deadline.

A senior White House official said the Iraq declaration could be hundreds of pages and perhaps written in Arabic. The official said he anticipates that it will take four to five days to translate, process and distribute the declaration before the administration is prepared to react to its content.

"This declaration needs to be gone over completely and thoroughly," said White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. "We don't know how many pages they'll provide. It could be hundreds, it could be thousands of pages. We just don't know. But depending on how long it is, we'll take the appropriate time to review it, assess it, study it."

Bush continues to warn Saddam that the United States is poised to lead an international coalition to force Iraq to disarm if he does not voluntarily do so.

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