Iraq said on Wednesday there was still room for a diplomatic solution to avert war with the United States, but that Baghdad had to prepare for conflict because Washington did not want a peaceful solution. "We believe that dialogue has not totally been cut off, but it is being blocked by American pressure," Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan told Reuters. "We believe dialogue is the correct way to solve any problem." The comments came after the U.S. administration appeared to harden its position against Baghdad, saying that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction posed a mortal danger to the United States that justified a pre-emptive attack.

Ramadan said Iraq took that threat seriously, though it preferred to negotiate.

"We do not consider the American threats a joke, nor do we regard them fatalistically," he said. "Anything is possible...We believe in the right of any people to defend themselves, and in the end we have faith that aggressors...must be crushed."

"America has an idea, an image and a program which it wants to impose on the whole world without exception and according to its own method," he added.

Ramadan is on a three-day visit to Syria as part of an Arab tour aimed at building Arab diplomatic defenses for Iraq, whose leader Saddam Hussein said on Tuesday that a U.S. assault on Iraq would be an attack on "all the Arab nation."

The Iraqi presidential envoy said while Iraq was ready to talk it was not ready to surrender under Washington's terms.

"There are rights and obligations. If flexibility is to be understood as concessions this is not going to happen," he said.

Ramadan said most Arab leaders believe a U.S. attack on Iraq to oust Saddam would set a dangerous precedent in the region.

"The whole Arab nation is threatened. I believe there is a total conviction among all Arab governments that although it is a threat to Iraq directly, in fact it is a threat to all Arab countries."

SYRIA SAYS UN MUST SETTLE CONFLICT

The remarks were the latest in a chorus of Arab and international voices rejecting any U.S. strike on Iraq.

Syria, itself at odds with Washington over its support for Hizbollah and radical Palestinian groups, considers plans to hit Iraq part of an attempt to install puppet regimes in the region to serve U.S. and Israeli interests.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned that there could be chaos in the Middle East and many innocent civilians could lose their lives if Washington attacked Iraq.

China and India on Wednesday joined other countries including Germany in voicing their opposition.

Renewed threats came from Vice President Dick Cheney who this week laid out the case for pre-emptive action against Iraq, warning of the danger of weapons of mass destruction falling into the wrong hands and bringing the prospect of war ever nearer.

Syria said it was the responsibility of the United Nations to settle the dispute between the U.S. and Iraq.

"Any sound view of what is happening requires the United Nations to resume dialogue with Iraq and apply U.N. resolutions," Syria's state press on Wednesday quoted Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa Mero as telling Ramadan during a banquet.

"Countries seeking security, peace and stability for this region should exert an effective international role to cut off the (U.S.) aggressive tendencies which want to keep this region in a cycle of violence, aggression, subjugation and humiliation," he said.

Syria and Iraq, once bitter enemies, have rehabilitated ties fraught by Damascus's support for the U.S.-led Gulf War that drove Iraq from Kuwait, and are believed to conduct a trade in Iraqi crude oil in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Damascus says all of its oil deals with Iraq are part of the U.N. oil-for-food program that governs Iraq's oil exports.

Ramadan is expected to sign a set of trade, economic, health, education and environment agreements with Syria on Thursday to consolidate their ties.

PHOTO CAPTION

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan (L) is welcomed to Damascus by Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa Mero, August 27, 2002. Ramadan, in Syria to build diplomatic defense against the threat of a U.S. attack, said Iraq was not bothered by escalating war rhetoric from Washington. (Khaled Al-Hariri/