Baghdad has reportedly accepted a United Nations resolution on Iraqi disarmament as a new US war plan is leaked to the media. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told an Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo that Baghdad had accepted the UN resolution after obtaining assurances from UN Security Council member Syria that the resolution did not forsee automatic recourse to military action.

The new measure imposes a stringent arms inspection regime on Baghdad and warns of "serious consequences" if it does not disarm. It gives President Saddam Hussein until November 15 to accept the text.

"The Arab ministers welcomed Iraq's acceptance of Resolution 1441, following assurances from Syria that this resolution does not provide for automatic military action (against Baghdad)," the minister told reporters in the Egyptian capital.

Prince al-Faisal spoke after a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers at the League's headquarters in Cairo. The ministers are due to continue their meeting on Sunday.

On the margins of Saturday's meeting, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri met his counterpart from Syria, the only Arab nation currently sitting in the 15-nation Security Council.

Sabri said he had voted for the resolution on disarming Iraq after receiving assurances it would not be a green light for a US-led strike on Baghdad.

"In no provision of this resolution is there anything that allows countries to take unilateral action," Syria's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Fayssal Mekdad, told the BBC.

State radio in Damascus reported Saturday that Syria voted in favour of the resolution only to avoid a US military strike on Baghdad which would benefit Israel.

Meanwhile the New York Times reported in its Sunday edition that US war plans on Iraq approved by President George W. Bush include a shorter air campaign than in the 1991 Gulf War, but deployment of up to 250,000 troops.

The air campaign would last less than a month and would build on lessons learned in Afghanistan, such as using infiltrated commandos to help guide precision-guided missiles to their target, according to the Times, quoting unnamed senior administration officials.

The plan also envisions US forces capturing three zones -- in northern, western and southern Iraq -- to be used as operational bases, the Time reported.

"While we would not want to kill many Iraqi soldiers, if they stupidly fight, we will," a senior military official told the Times.
The war plan was approved well before the Friday vote at the United Nations, according to the Times.

In London, comments by Britain's International Development Secretary, Clare Short indicated tensions on the Iraq policy within Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet.

Short, an outspoken leftwing minister, said it was "essential" to deal with the disarming of Iraq through the UN and to maintain international unity -- and it was up to the Security Council to decide whether military action should be launched if Iraq fails to disarm.

Earlier Saturday, Britain's ambassador to the UN, Jeremy Greenstock, said a new UN resolution may have to be hammered out if Iraq refuses to cooperate with UN inspectors.

Iraqi state-run television has reiterated that the country was free of the weapons of mass destruction, which were supposed to be scrapped under Resolution 1441.

PHOTO CAPTION

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said October 14, 2002 his country opposed war on Iraq and would not participate in any possible U.S. strike against the kingdom's northern neighbor. Al-Faisal gestures before the start of an Arab Foreign Ministers meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo on Sept. 4. Photo by Aladin Abdel Naby/Reuters
- Oct 14 3:48 PM ET