Bush Reacts Angrily to Iraqi Chemical Threat : Mideast: He urges President Hussein to withdraw his ‘eat half of Israel’ statement.

One day after President Saddam Hussein of Iraq threatened to launch a chemical weapons attack to “eat half of Israel” if Israel attacks Iraqi targets, President Bush reacted angrily, saying, “This is no time to be talking about using chemical or biological weapons.

“This is no time to be escalating tensions in the Middle East,” Bush added as he urged Hussein to withdraw his threat.

The President’s comments Tuesday, and a sharply worded statement issued by White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, reflected the sudden war of words with Iraq at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East.

In remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew from Indiana to Michigan during a day of political fund-raising speeches in Indianapolis and Dearborn, Bush said of Hussein’s comments:

“I found those statements to be bad, and I would strongly urge Iraq to reject the use of chemical weapons. And I don’t think it helps peace in the Middle East.”

“I don’t think it helps the security interest in Iraq, obviously, and it was certainly wrong. So I would suggest that those statements be withdrawn.”

Hussein said Monday in a speech: “We don’t need an atomic bomb, because we have the double chemical. Whoever threatens us with the atomic bomb, we will annihilate him with the double chemical.”

He apparently referred to chemical weapons known as binary weapons. Unlike the older, single-unit chemical weapons, they are made up of two chemicals that are relatively safe when kept apart but become a lethal poison when automatically combined in an artillery shell or bomb nearing its target.

Iraq is thought to maintain the largest chemical weapons stockpile in the Middle East, but whether it has an arsenal of binary weapons is uncertain .

Bush said the United States has no evidence that Iraq has modernized its arsenal to include binary weapons.

Fitzwater, who on Monday made no comment on Hussein’s speech, said Tuesday that after reviewing it, “the President finds the statements about Iraq’s chemical weapons capability and his threatening Israel to be particularly deplorable and irresponsible.”

“What is needed in the Middle East is not inflammatory rhetoric but concrete steps to rid the region of chemical and other unconventional weapons and to move toward peace,” he said.

The question of a confrontation between Israel and Iraq has taken on added urgency in recent days with renewed speculation that Iraq is trying to build a nuclear weapon.

Iraq has denounced as a setup the allegations that it plotted to smuggle components of nuclear bomb triggers from the United States.