"He (Saddam) is delaying. He's deceiving. He's asking for time. He's playing hide-and-seek with inspectors," Bush alleged.

WASHINGTON, January 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. on Tuesday, January 21, ordered two more aircraft carriers to the Gulf as President George W. Bush rebuffed international pressure to give U.N. weapons inspectors more time to work in Iraq.

After calls were made at the UN Monday, January 20, for U.N. inspectors to be given more time to check for alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Bush said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had squandered "ample time" to disarm and avert war, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"How much time do we need to see clearly that he's not disarming?" Bush said.

"He must disarm. And we will lead a coalition of willing nations to disarm him, make no mistake about that. He will be disarmed."

Bush claimed that Saddam was using "the tricks of the past" to thwart the inspectors.

"He is delaying. He's deceiving. He's asking for time. He's playing hide-and-seek with inspectors," Bush alleged.

"This looks like a re-run of a bad movie. And I'm not interested in watching it."

"He's been given ample time to disarm," Bush said, claiming that "time is running out."

Bush expressed frustration with countries such as France and Germany, which stand firmly against any unjustified U.S.-led war on Iraq

Germany has said it will not support any military action while France stresses there is no justification for war now and that weapons inspectors must be given the time they need to conclude their mission.

"Surely our friends have learned lessons from the past. Surely, we have learned how this man deceives and delays," claimed Bush, recalling that France had voted  on November 8 in favor of U.N. Security Council disarmament resolution on Iraq.

But asked when he would determine that inspections should end, Bush would only say: "I will let you know when the moment has come."

Russia, France and China, three of five permanent Security Council members that all wield veto power over any U.N. vote, have all questioned the justification for an immediate military strike against Baghdad.

"Nothing justifies cutting off inspections to enter into war and uncertainty," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Monday in New York.

De Villepin said that, thanks to the inspections, "already we know for a fact that the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction programs have been largely blocked, even frozen."

More U.S. Aircraft Carriers Set Sail for the Gulf

Stepping up the already massive military build-up in the Gulf, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed deployment orders for two extra carrier battle groups, including the USS Abraham Lincoln, at the weekend, Navy spokesman Tom Van Leunen said.

The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier battle group sails for the Gulf

The U.S. Navy will now soon have five aircraft carriers in the Gulf, giving U.S. commanders the clout to launch a major air offensive against Iraq, analysts said.

Each battle group has about 7,500 sailors and marines and up to 85 aircraft.

The USS Constellation, is in the Gulf now while the USS Harry Truman is in the eastern Mediterranean.

Two other aircraft carriers are on orders to be prepared to deploy within 96 hours, and a third is training in the Caribbean.

The Abraham Lincoln is heading to the Gulf from the sea off Australia.

The U.S. is expected to have more than 150,000 troops in the region by mid-February.

Among the latest forces ordered to the Gulf are 37,000 soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division, which the U.S. Army says "is the most lethal, modern, and deployable heavy division in the world; it is prepared to conduct full-spectrum combat operations."

Blair Says Saddam's Grip on Power 'Weakening'

British Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed Tuesday that Saddam's grip on power is being weakened by the one-two punch of international diplomacy and a build-up of U.S. and British firepower in the Gulf.

"The one thing that is very obvious is that, as a result of the military build-up and as a result of the determination to see this thing through, the regime in Iraq and Saddam are weakening," Blair told a parliamentary hearing.

"They are rattled, they are weakening," he alleged.

"We are getting a massive amount of intelligence out of there now as to what is happening in Iraq, and that is why we have to keep up the pressure every inch of the way."

Blair claims there was evidence of "linkages" between individuals in Iraq and al-Qaeda

Blair was testifying to the chairmen of the House of Commons select committees a day after his government announced that it was sending nearly a quarter of the entire British army -- some 26,000 troops, plus 120 tanks -- to the Gulf for a possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

They will be joining some 15 Royal Navy warships deployed to the eastern Mediterranean with 3,000 Royal Marines, plus British warplanes already in position in Turkey, Kuwait and Oman.

Military analysts told AFP that the bigger-than-expected size of the British deployment -- in tandem with the mustering of U.S. military might in the Middle East, and on the same scale as its contribution to the 1991 Gulf War -- suggested that a war on Iraq might be just a matter of weeks away.

In shirt-sleeves, at a casual setting that made him look like he was presenting a college seminar, Blair told parliament's Liaison Committee there was "overwhelming" evidence that Iraq was engaged in developing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in defiance of U.N. resolutions.

"Iraq is not the only problem in relation to weapons of mass destruction," Blair said, noting that North Korea's nuclear program was "extremely worrying."

"We must give Saddam a signal that there is no way out of this" other than to give up the development and stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction, he claimed.

Blair also alleged there was evidence of "linkages" between individuals in Iraq -- he did not say who -- and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

U.N. inspectors will report to the U.N. Security Council on Monday on their on-going efforts to determine whether Iraq is complying with U.N. resolutions calling on it to give up its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Blair will then travel to Camp David, Maryland on January 31 for a tete a tete talks with Bush.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw -- just back from a meeting in New York with U.N. Security Council counterparts -- warned Saddam to "end his games of hide and seek."

Straw, who flies back to the United States on Wednesday, January 22, to see Secretary of State Colin Powell, claimed the "international community must maintain pressure on Saddam Hussein to end his games of hide and seek."

"Iraq must comply fully, actively and positively with all its international obligations."

 French Group Says Human Shields Ready to Travel to Iraq

A French group said Tuesday it was ready to send "human shields" to Baghdad if there is a U.S.-led war on the country.

Some 15 volunteers from various countries are prepared to travel to Iraq "so as to defy the U.S. to kill Europeans and also Americans in their bombing," Gilles Munier, the head of the Franco-Iraqi Friendship association said.

He added that his group had also sent a dozen people from France -- researchers and military reservists -- to examine sites searched by U.N. weapons inspectors, some of whom he accused of conducting intelligence-gathering operations in a conflict.

The "counter inspectors" had been met by senior Iraqi officials and had looked at three sites singled out for suspicion in a September 2002 report made public by Blair, Munier said.

The examinations, carried out January 10-17, found nothing, "like the (U.N.) inspectors," he said, adding: "We were able to confirm that this report (from Blair) was only meant to convince public opinion of the need for a war on Iraq."

Munier said his group planned to send another team of volunteers to Iraq in February to verify the U.N. inspectors' work "if nothing bad happens before then."