Washington's preparations for war on Iraq hit new snags as Turkey warned its backing for the US was not irreversible and regional giant Saudi Arabia hardened its opposition to unilateral US action.

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara was not "on an irreversible road" in support of the United States, which wants to use the only Muslim member of NATO to stage an invasion into neighboring Iraq.

For his part, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia, a key US ally in the Gulf, warned Washington against attacking Iraq without a green light from the UN Security Council.

Prince Saud told the BBC late Monday that such action "would appear as aggression" as momentum built for a fresh Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force -- a call joined by Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Sezer, who has largely ceremonial powers but can influence major security decisions, also said Turkey would not open its territory to US combat troops without a new UN resolution authorizing force.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned Monday that the legitimacy of any action would be impaired without a united international position, while the focus must remain ridding Iraq of its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

He was speaking at a crisis summit of the European Union that agreed a compromise joint statement pledging to seek a peaceful solution to the crisis, without ruling out the use of force.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington's staunchest backer, insisted Tuesday that "there's no rush to war" while also calling for a second UN resolution.

"I always said that I want to resolve this through the United Nations," Blair told a press conference at Downing Street, acknowledging "there is a lot of debate to go on" before a decision is reached.

Blair, who has committed 30,000 troops, a 17-ship naval task force and some 100 warplanes to a possible war, was speaking after a new poll showed that for the first time a clear majority of Britons -- 52 percent -- oppose war with Iraq.

At the Security Council last Friday, the hardline US stance calling for imminent military action against Iraq garnered support from only two of the 14 other council members: Britain and Spain.

France, China and Russia -- all veto-wielding permanent members of the Council alongside the United States and Britain -- have presented a united position in favor of allowing UN inspections in Iraq to continue.

The joint statement by the leaders of the 15 EU countries Monday underlined that approach by calling military action a "last resort" if Saddam did not seize his "final opportunity" to disarm peacefully.

That prompted Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin to say Tuesday that France's position is "shared more and more, and therefore we are more in a strategy that consists of maintaining the unity of the international community and of making sure that the Security Council can keep its unanimity."

France meanwhile pursued its drive for European unity against a rush to war as Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie warned EU candidate countries that they were putting their membership plans at risk by supporting the United States on Iraq.

Europe's divisions on Iraq were brought into sharp relief last month in a pro-US letter published by eight European countries including EU candidate countries Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic that left France and fellow war opponent Germany out in the cold.

Days later, the leaders of 10 eastern European countries issued their own letter backing Washington on the threat of military action against Baghdad.

Turkey's warnings Tuesday came as talks between Turkey and the US were at an impasse on the amount of financial aid Ankara will receive from Washington to offset the economic impact of a war, amid reports that Turkey is seeking up to 50 billion dollars.

Only Sunday, Turkey had won a commitment from NATO to start planning its defense in the event of war, after the issue caused a damaging rift in the 19-member alliance over the inevitability of military action.

Popular opposition to a war in Iraq is overwhelming in both Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as well as across the Gulf region, and was echoed on the streets of dozens of cities around the world when an estimated eight to 10 million people joined weekend anti-war marches.

The 22-member Arab League at the weekend also proclaimed support for the peaceful disarmament of Iraq through continued UN weapons inspections and urged Arabs "not to provide any kind of assistance" to any potential US military campaign.

The non-binding resolution did not sit well with Kuwait, where almost half the 150,000 US-led troops deployed in anticipation of a new war are posted.

As for Saudi Arabia, which served as a springboard for the liberation of Kuwait by a US-led coalition in 1991, some 5,000 US troops remain in the country.

Tuesday's developments came as Iraq's disparate opposition groups were gearing up for a key meeting in the northern Kurd enclave, hoping to assert themselves as a viable political force in the countdown to Saddam's ouster.

Copyright 2003 AFP

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