Schroeder: We won't strike Iraq

Schroeder has been cool on possible U.S. action against Iraq

BERLIN, Germany -- Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has ruled out joining in any U.S.-led military action against Iraq, saying the German army is already overstretched.

"As far as military intervention against Iraq goes, I believe we should be restrained. That means that Germany will not participate," Schroeder told ARD television.

"After America we have the second highest number of troops in international engagements, more than any other European country," he said. "The limit of what can be sensibly asked of us has been reached."

Germany now has 10,500 soldiers serving in foreign countries, a five-fold increase since Schroeder came to office. Most are peacekeepers, but there are about 100 German combat troops in Afghanistan.

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Schroeder faces re-election on September 22 and is trailing right-wing challenger Edmund Stoiber in recent opinion polls.

On Monday in his opening election address, the German chancellor appeared to distance himself from U.S. action against Iraq, saying that under his leadership the country would not be available for "adventures."

In the past Schroeder has said foreign policy issues would not prove decisive in a national German election, but with the economy faltering he has taken a harder line than Stoiber against any U.S.-led military action.

Schroeder's stance has left British Prime Minister Tony Blair as the most probable ally of U.S. President George W. Bush in any strike on Iraq. But Blair is facing opposition at home to any such move, even within his own party.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO CNN's Patty Davis says the Bush administration views Iraq's threats as bluster (August 8) Play video CNN's Rym Brahimi on Saddam's warning a U.S. attack would be 'doomed' (August 8) Play video The U.N.'s Kofi Annan tells Iraq it must submit to weapons inspections negotiations. CNN's Richard Roth reports (August 7) Play video   INTERACTIVE MAP Where Europe stands on Iraq    MORE STORIES • White House dismisses Saddam speech  • Saudi Arabia denies use of bases  • Bush vows consultations on Iraq  • Europe, U.S. divided over Iraq

Leading Pentagon analyst Richard Perle told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper on Friday that he expected Blair to rally to the cause.

"I have no doubt Bush would act alone if necessary. But he will not be alone when the time comes," wrote Perle, head of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, an influential U.S. think tank.

"I suspect when push comes to shove he will go with it," Toby Dodge, associate fellow at Britain's Royal Institute of International Affairs think tank, told Reuters.

Despite most British politicians being on holiday, Blair was facing mounting signs of opposition among his party's MPs and in the broader Labour movement over possible British involvement in a U.S.-led attack.

It emerged that the prospect of military action could provoke hostile debates at the annual conferences of both the UK trade union body, the Trades Union Congress, and the Labour Party.

The majority of Britons do not support a war on Iraq -- an opinion poll this week found 52 percent opposed an attack while only 34 percent were in favour.

The first challenge to Blair is likely to come at the TUC conference, which is being held in Blackpool next month, a few weeks ahead of Labour's own gathering there at the beginning of October.

While no motions have been tabled on the issue, an amendment is expected to be filed to existing resolutions about peace and security policy or an emergency debate called.

Blair has repeatedly said that war against Iraq is not imminent and that no decisions have been taken. But he has stressed that the threat posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programmes must be addressed.

On Friday Blair faced further warnings from his backbenchers about the perils of involving British forces in a U.S.-led attack, one critic saying it could even lose Blair's Labour Party the next election in the UK.

Writing in the New Statesman magazine, former Foreign Office minister and Manchester MP Tony Lloyd warned: "These are desperately serious issues, not intellectual parlour games, and we have got to have proper answers.

Hussein warned on Thursday that a U.S. attack on Iraq would be "doomed"

"If these are not forthcoming and Britain drifts into a war... there will be an enormous outcry, certainly among backbench Labour MPs in Parliament, and much more widely among a public whose revenge takes place at the ballot box."

The Independent newspaper reported senior defence and diplomatic sources as saying that Britain has strongly advised the U.S. against attacking Iraq because they believe it will "contaminate" the conflicts in Afghanistan, Israel and Kashmir.

Hussein's warning yesterday that any attack on his country would end in certain failure was dismissed by Washington. (Full story)

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said: "It's obvious once again that Saddam's comments are bluster from an internationally isolated dictator, demonstrative yet again that his regime shows no intention to live up to its obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions."