Powell due in Turkey for talks later today

The visits are intended to explain US policy in Iraq at high level meetings with Turkish, NATO and EU officials.

Mr Powell is expected in Ankara later today and the European Commission said he would meet NATO and EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday.

Turkey is currently allowing US warplanes to use its airpsace for raids against neighbouring Iraq, but the Turkish parliament rejected a US request to deploy its troops in the country to open a northern front against Baghdad.

Mr Powell will meet EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten and the Greek Foreign Minister, Georges Papandreou.

Blix doubts Iraq WMD use

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix doubts Iraq would use weapons of mass destruction - if it has them - against Anglo-US forces.

Mr Blix told Belgium's Le Soir that if Iraq had such weapons, 'I doubt very much that they would use them because this war has gained them a certain amount of sympathy in the world, which would turn against them if they used chemical arms.'

He also said the arms inspectors had not had enough time to carry out their work.

Veteran journalist axed by NBC

Peter Arnett, a Pulitzer Prize winner during the Vietnam War who gained fame in 1991 as CNN's man in Baghdad, was sacked last night by the US TV channel NBC.

In an ad-hoc interview on Iraqi TV, he had said the US war plan had failed.

He has since been hired by the UK Daily Mirror.

Fox News has been pressurised by the Pentagon to remove Geraldo Rivera from his posting with the 101st Airborne Division.

In a broadcast report, he sketched a map in the sand for viewers to outline US troop positions.

The field commander where he was reporting complained that he had 'compromised operational security.'

But Fox News said early this morning Mr Rivera was still in Iraq.

President's family has not fled

President Saddam Hussein has denied that any of his close family have fled abroad.

In a statement read out on Iraqi TV, he said his fate and that of his relatives remained tied to that of the Iraqi people.

The Iraqi President appeared to be responding to speculation in some foreign media that the elder of his two wives, Sajida, and his daughters had fled Iraq.

Saudi FM says Hussein should stand down

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said last night that President Saddam Hussein should make a 'sacrifice for his country' by stepping aside.

'This war can only lead to strife, to bloodshed and to increased hatred, and increased ... anxieties in the region,' he said.

'Perhaps this is a good time to stop, take a breath, and allow for diplomacy to work,' he added.

But he also said the US had to do some reckoning on the advice it had acted on.