US/RUSSIA: The United States yesterday failed to win Russian backing for the use of force in the Gulf, as Moscow tried to soothe inflamed international tempers over Iraq.
"I didn't detect any shift in their position," Undersecretary of State Mr John Bolton said after talks with Russian officials aimed at winning support for a new United Nations resolution sanctioning military action in Iraq. The talks came a day after Russia, Germany and France signed a draft resolution seeking a political way out of the Iraq impasse, and hours after the Kremlin said that Germany's Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, would visit Moscow today.
Russian President Mr Vladimir Putin yesterday discussed the standoff with Spanish leader Mr José María Aznar, who backs the US-British resolution calling for a military response if Iraq fails to destroy its alleged cache of weapons of mass destruction. The Kremlin released no further details of the telephone conversation between Mr Putin and Mr Aznar.
Russia's Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, will fly today to China to discuss the Iraq problem with a fellow veto-wielding member of the Security Council that opposes force, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mr Alexander Yakovenko said yesterday.
"Both sides consider it essential to make every effort to avert a military scenario that could not only have unpredictable consequences for the situation in the region but undermine the legal basis of the existing system of international relations," Mr Yakovenko said. "China supports the joint French-Russian-German initiative."
Russia, which has major oil interests in Iraq and hopes to access lucrative Asian markets by extending its Trans-Siberian railway through North Korea to the South, has consistently backed dialogue as the only way to resolve both crises.
Mr Putin on Sunday sent former prime minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, on a secret mission to Baghdad, where the Kremlin said he received assurances from President Saddam Hussein that Iraq would not hinder the work of UN arms inspectors.
Baghdad's Information Minister, Mr Muhammad Sahhaf, said yesterday that Mr Primakov had gone to Baghdad to "express his solidarity with Iraq" rather than, as some newspapers here suggested, to persuade Saddam to choose exile to avert war.
"This is out of the question," Mr Sahhaf told Vremya Novostei newspaper. "It's just dirty rumours no normal self-respecting person would ever offer such a thing to our President."
Mr Ivanov will also discuss in Beijing the simmering crisis on the Korean Peninsula.
While Washington had no luck in Moscow, hopes are high in the US that Turkey will soon sanction a deal to allow US troops use Turkish bases in the event of a war in Iraq.
Turkey said yesterday it was preparing to open ports and air bases to some 62,000 US troops for a possible invasion of Iraq - once it the deal with Washington on financial support and military co-operation has been concluded.
The government submitted a motion to parliament outlining the plans for US forces yesterday, and a vote is expected on today or tomorrow. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) has a big majority despite internal dissent over what would be an unpopular war.
Washington had expected a parliamentary go-ahead a week ago.
US ships carrying armour, munitions and supplies for the Fourth Infantry Division, a body of 20,000 to 30,000, waited off Turkey's Mediterranean coast for the green light from Ankara.
