Primate concerned about possibility of war

The Catholic Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Seán Brady has said it is difficult to justify war against Iraq as there is not enough evidence of an imminent and serious attack by Saddam Hussein's regime.

Archbishop Brady was echoing concerns he relayed last week to Tony Blair at Downing Street.

Dr Brady said if war were to be deemed necessary, this should take place within the framework of the United Nations and only after due consideration of the consequences for Iraqi civilians and stability in the Middle East.

The Archbishop of Armagh acknowledged that negative consequences could result from not going to war and welcomed UN efforts to prevent Iraq using weapons of mass destruction.

Cardinal Desmond Connell has warned that peace cannot be assured by force of weapons alone, as the Irish experience has sadly shown.

He said international law, honest dialogue, solidarity and diplomacy between the nations are means of striving for peace worthy of human beings.

UK mobilisation bigger than expected

The UK is to send 26,000 ground troops to the Gulf ahead of a possible US-led war against Iraq.

The announcement was made in the Commons by the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon.

The mobilisation is significantly larger than the speculated figure of 14,000 troops. 120 tanks are also being sent to the region.

Mr Hoon again insisted that none of these steps would commit British forces to military action. He said such a decision had not been taken, nor was such a decision imminent or inevitable.

Cyprus venue for interviews

Cyprus has agreed to a UN request to host interviews between arms inspectors and Iraqi scientists as part of continuing investigations into Iraq's weapons capability.

Iraq has agreed to co-operate more fully with UN arms inspectors, saying it was forming its own teams of inspectors to help in the search for banned weapons.

After two days of talks in Baghdad with the leaders of the inspection team, senior Iraqi officials signed a ten-point agreement to facilitate the searches.

Following the talks, President Saddam Hussein's Chief Science Advisor described the meeting between Iraqi officials and United Nations weapons inspectors in Baghdad as constructive.

General Amir al-Saadi was speaking after the second round of discussions aimed at securing better co-operation for the inspectors in their search for weapons of mass destruction.

Earlier, the head of the UN's nuclear agency, Mohamed El Baradei, said his talks with Iraqi officials yesterday had been constructive and had achieved some progress.