Putin warned that any UN resolution automatically calling for war on Iraq would be unacceptable

BEIJING, February 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A war in Iraq "can and should be avoided," the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers said Thursday, February 27, in a joint communiqué carried by the Xinhua news agency.

"Both sides reiterate their determination to render their full efforts for promoting a political solution to the Iraqi issue," the communiqué said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

It said the international community had widely called for taking all measures to avoid war.

"Such aspiration should be respected," it added.

The two countries, who are both permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, agreed that UN resolution 1441 and other resolutions on Iraq provided the necessary legal basis for tackling the issue.

They added that the Security Council should enhance guidance over weapons inspections and support the inspection work.

Neither Russia nor China have revealed whether they plan to veto the second resolution on Iraq tabled this week by the United States and Britain.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov arrived in the Chinese capital late Wednesday, February 26, and held talks Thursday morning with Chinese Vice President and Communist Party head Hu Jintao and his counterpart Tang Jiaxuan.

His trip comes hot on the heels of a February 23-24 visit to Beijing by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Powell was in Beijing to lobby China for support on a new UN resolution on Iraq but appeared to get nowhere.

UN resolution calling for war on Iraq unacceptable: Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Wednesday that any UN resolution automatically calling for war on Iraq would be unacceptable, while welcoming U.S. pressure on Iraq because it was forcing Baghdad to cooperate.

"We find it unacceptable to adopt a resolution that foresees the use of force," Putin told journalists after talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

He said that Russia's position on the Iraq issue had remained unchanged.

"We must resolve this situation through peaceful means and make sure that Iraq complies with the UN resolutions," he added.

"We believe that the potential of (UN Security Council) Resolution 1441 is far from having been exhausted."

Putin said, "I think that the pressure that the U.S. is putting on Iraq also has a useful side and is forcing Iraq to cooperate" with UN disarmament inspectors.

"But it is important that we do not cross that line where there can no longer be a peaceful solution," he added.

"We think that international inspectors must make precise demands to Iraq and make sure that they (the Iraqis) comply with them," he added.

"Much will depend on the responsible stands of Iraq itself. This is why we intend to continue working with Iraq, to make sure that it conscientiously complies with the UN."

Putin said he was optimistic and was not losing hope that there would be a peaceful resolution to the stand-off between Washington and Baghdad.

"I have never heard it said by the U.S. president that he wants to have a war," he said, adding that he would speak with George W. Bush on Thursday.

Schoeder said Berlin and Moscow were "united in the fact that Iraq must disarm and that this can be achieved through peaceful means."

He said that Germany and Russia were striving for a peaceful settlement to the crisis "because of our mutual history".

"Both Russia and Germany know from our bitter history what war is," he said. "Perhaps this explains why we are cooperating on this."

On his arrival in Moscow, Schroeder had called on Iraq to destroy its Al-Samoud missiles, as demanded by UN weapons inspectors.

"Iraq must cooperate with all (UN) demands, including the destruction of its Al-Samoud missiles," Schroeder said, quoted by Russian news agency Interfax.

Earlier Wednesday, a top Russian foreign ministry official also called on Iraq to scrap the missiles.

"We expect that in the coming days, Iraq will take a series of useful steps, including the destruction, starting on March 1, of Al-Samoud missiles," said Andrei Granovsky, who heads the department of international organizations with the Russian foreign ministry.

Germany and Russia joined France in presenting a memorandum to the United Nations on Monday, urging a peaceful disarmament of Iraq through expanded and intensified UN weapons inspections.

The memorandum was seen as a counter-proposal to the resolution filed by the United States, Britain and Spain, which claimed that Iraq has "failed to take the final opportunity" to disarm and warned of "serious consequences" if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein fails to meet UN demands.

Russian Foreign Minister meanwhile arrived for high-level talks with Chinese leaders in Beijing, two days after U.S. Secretary of States failed to get assurance from China that it would back US policies on Iraq or North Korea.

China is one of five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Putin and his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin agreed last week that weapons inspections must continue in Iraq and the crisis should be resolved through diplomacy.