"Insufficient support" for a new resolution mandating war on Iraq "will not stop" Bush from acting alone, said Fleischer

WASHINGTON, January 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The White House said Tuesday, January 28, that a fresh U.N. resolution on Iraq would be "desirable" before unleashing war on Iraq while forty-one American Nobel Prize winners reiterated their opposition to unilateral U.S. war on Iraq.

President George W. Bush's "preference at all times is to do things with the most international support possible," spokesman Ari Fleischer said hours before Bush was to make a speech bracing Americans for possible war with Iraq, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Asked whether Washington would agree to a new resolution if there were a broad international consensus that such a measure were needed, Fleischer replied: "It's desirable but it is not mandatory."

"It's premature to say in finality about whether or not that will be the case," said Fleischer, who stressed that "insufficient support" for a new resolution "will not stop" Bush from acting alone if necessary.

U.N. Security Council resolution 1441, adopted last November, warns Iraq of "serious consequences" if it fails to disarm voluntarily, but does not explicitly spell out what those might be.

Several key nations, including Russia and France, have taken pains to say that the Security Council alone is empowered to authorize the use of force.

Amid such opposition from allies against unilateral action, Bush was stepping up the "serious business" of consulting other leaders about what action to take against Iraq, said Fleischer.

Bush discussed Iraq policy by telephone Monday, January 27, with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and will welcome Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi next week.

Bush, set to make his annual "State of the Union" speech to the U.S. Congress late Tuesday, will welcome his closest ally on Iraq -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- to the Camp David retreat on Friday.

"The consultation business is a serious business. Reaching out to the Europeans is serious business," said Fleischer, who downplayed resistance from Germany and France to unilateral U.S. military action.

"Most European nations see this in a way very similar to what the president sees. There are a few exceptions to that, but most see it similar to the president," the spokesman said.

Fleischer reiterated that Bush would not use this speech to reveal any startling new evidence that Iraqi possesses banned chemical, biological or nuclear arms programs.

"There will be additional info in the time period ahead. Not tonight," said the spokesman, who told reporters that Bush "has not made a determination" of whether he will got to war against Baghdad.

41 U.S. Nobel Prize Laureates Oppose War on Iraq

"war is characterized by surprise, human loss, and unintended consequences," Ramsey

In a further manifestation of mounting anti-war sentiments, 41 American Nobel Prize winners said Tuesday they oppose a unilateral U.S. war on Iraq.

"The undersigned oppose a preventive war against Iraq without broad international support," said the letter, distributed in Congress ahead of Bush's speech.

"Military operations against Iraq may indeed lead to a relatively swift victory in the short term. But war is characterized by surprise, human loss, and unintended consequences," the letter said.

"Even with a victory, we believe that the medical, economic, environmental, moral, spiritual, political, and legal consequences of an American preventive attack on Iraq would undermine, not protect, U.S. security and standing in the world," it stressed.

The signers were recipients of Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, economics and medicine.

They include former U.S. Defense Department advisors and scientists, such as Norman Ramsey, former director of "Project Manhattan," which helped develop the first U.S. atomic bomb.