Bush ‘Sick and Tired’ of Iraq’s ‘Games’

UNITED NATIONS —  President Bush said Tuesday that he was “sick and tired” of Iraq’s failure to cooperate with the United Nations on disarmament and warned that “time is running out.”

But in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was “optimistic and hopeful” that continued pressure on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could lead to disarmament without military intervention, although he acknowledged that the threat of U.S. military action was instrumental in forcing Iraq to allow inspections to resume.

The disparate positions reflect the differences between the Bush administration and the U.N. about how and when to solve the confrontation over Baghdad’s suspected weapons of mass destruction. They also reflect the bad-cop/good-cop positions assumed by the two leaders most pivotal to the U.N. effort.

The United States is intent on ratcheting up the pressure more each day that Iraq balks at complying with requests for information on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons or ballistic missiles. The United Nations is counseling more time and patience for weapons inspectors to do their job -- a position held by many of its member states, including close U.S. allies.

But the president’s words also reflect the administration’s effort to adjust its public message on Iraq for the second time in two weeks, U.S. officials said.

Last week, U.S. officials tried repeatedly to lower expectations that American military action would be imminent after the weapons inspectors’ first formal report to the Security Council on Jan. 27. It worked so well in pushing back assumptions about a timetable that the administration is now concerned that Hussein may believe that pressure is letting up or that he has a temporary reprieve.

This week, the administration is again trying to impress Baghdad with the dire consequences of not acting.

“So far, I haven’t seen any evidence that he has disarmed. Time is running out on Saddam Hussein. He must disarm. I’m sick and tired of games and deception. That’s my view of the timetable,” Bush told reporters as he began talks with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski in the Oval Office.

The White House also insisted Tuesday that the burden remains on Iraq to prove that it does not have weapons of mass destruction.

“The issue is not how long the inspections will last; the issue is whether Saddam Hussein this time is finally willing to disarm,” White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said. “The inspectors have more time, but time is running out. This is a question of not allowing Hussein to string the world along forever.”

The State Department charged Tuesday that Iraq is responding to arms inspections with only superficial cooperation, inadequate disclosures and continued defiance.

Just days before the two top inspectors are due to travel to Baghdad for talks, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice met with chief weapons inspector Hans Blix on Tuesday in New York to discuss more U.S. intelligence sharing and press for accelerated U.N. interviews with Iraqi scientists, according to administration officials.

Washington believes that the scientists could provide the keys to both past and ongoing weapons programs.

“It’s very important that Iraqi scientists should be interviewed free from the threat of violence and intimidation. The scientists are a tool, and individuals should be interviewed both inside and outside Iraq,” said an administration official. “We also want to make sure that the inspectors are getting everything they need to do their job and have all the necessary resources to complete their mission.”

Annan said the United States’ growing military presence in the Persian Gulf region may ultimately compel Iraq to disarm. But he urged Washington to give inspectors more time and to seek U.N. authorization before any war.

“I am both optimistic and hopeful that if we handle the situation right and the pressure on the Iraqi leadership is maintained, and the inspectors continue to work as aggressively as they are doing, we may be able to disarm Iraq peacefully without the need to resort to war,” he said.

Annan’s comments were an attempt to temper Bush’s impatience with the U.N. inspections process, which Annan described as just “getting up to speed.”

Inspectors have so far found a few examples of violations of U.N. resolutions regulating Iraqi imports and exports -- including illegally importing missile engines, aluminum tubes for missile parts and materials for solid missile fuel -- but scant evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

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Farley reported from the United Nations and Wright from Washington.