Rumsfeld to brief NATO on Iraq

Rumsfeld will meet his NATO counterparts on Tuesday and Wednesday

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WARSAW, Poland -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is in Europe for two days of NATO meetings where the main topic on the agenda will be Iraq.

The meetings with his counterparts from 18 other NATO countries will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Polish capital, Warsaw.

On Monday, Rumsfeld met Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Prime Minister Leszek Miller and Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinkski.

In his talks with the Polish president, Rumsfeld said the subject of Iraq came up in the context of pressing the U.N. Security Council to enforce existing resolutions on Iraqi disarmament.

He said it would be "not on the mark" to suggest the United States was planning to intervene in Iraq by itself.

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During his journey to Poland, Rumsfeld said on Sunday he would brief his fellow defence ministers on Iraq and the prospect of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein either using his arsenal of chemical and biological weapons or giving al Qaeda or other terrorist networks access to them.

But he said the briefing would not provide concrete new evidence on Iraq's arms programmes.

"I think this constant quest for new information and smoking guns is misguided," Rumsfeld said.

"What we will be doing at NATO is trying to help people connect the dots before something happens rather than afterwards."

He also said that he did not contemplate NATO getting involved as an organisation in any attack on Iraq, but he will raise the issue of a rapid reaction force. (Full story)

He said: "I just can't imagine it. I have no idea. It never crossed my mind. We've not proposed it.

"This is an informal meeting. We're not looking for a vote of unanimity. You don't find unanimity in our world. Don't expect it."

The NATO meetings will also address several institutional matters, including plans for adding new member countries and preparing for a meeting of NATO heads of government in November.

Other issues include streamlining NATO's command structure, improving ties with Russia, and considering a U.S. proposal for creating an always-on-call NATO force for short-notice operations.

Rumsfeld said the United States had no conflict with the Iraqi people.

He told reporters on Sunday that the target of a U.S. military attack on Iraq would be Saddam's narrow power base, not the country's civilian infrastructure.

He said: "I have said, and the president has said, that the small group of people that run Iraq and have run it for a good many years have repressed the people, and in a very real sense the people of that country are hostages to a small group of dictatorial, repressive government officials.

"The United States hasn't, and never has had, any problem with the Iraqi people."

He added: "Obviously no one would want to harm the people of that country. We favour the people of that country. But what the president will decide to do is entirely in the future."

He was asked on Monday about the outcome of the German elections in which the U.S. was featured in campaigning. (Full story)

Rumsfeld said: "I have no comment on the German elections outcome, but I would have to say that the way it was conducted was notably unhelpful."

"And as the White House indicated, has had the effect of poisoning the relationship."

German Defence Minister Peter Struck said he would meet with Rumsfeld during the NATO conference to try to put the dispute behind the two nations.

"Our relations now, they are a little bit difficult, but they will be repaired," Struck told CNN Sunday.

Rumsfeld said Monday he had no meeting "scheduled with the German counterpart."

Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, had said that an alleged comment by Germany's minister of justice comparing Bush to Adolph Hitler had created a "poisoned" atmosphere.

U.S. officials have also been disturbed by the re-elected Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's emphatic opposition to American military action in Iraq.

Schroeder announced Monday that Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin would resign.

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