Iraq Vows to Ignore U.N. Deadline, Asks Mideast Talks : Diplomacy: Defiant deputy premier accuses Bush of ‘leading the whole world towards a devastating war.’

Iraqi authorities Wednesday declared that the Baghdad regime will ignore a U.N. deadline to withdraw from Kuwait and again demanded that Washington negotiate a comprehensive Middle East peace.

“The American President Bush, who is leading the whole world towards a devastating war, has no other choice but to return to reason and enter into a dialogue to avoid the catastrophes of war to the region,” said Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraq’s first deputy prime minister.

Added the government newspaper Al Thawra: “Any decision taken by the Security Council under the present U.S. hegemony is of no concern to us. It will not force us to step back or relinquish our national historical rights (to Kuwait).”

The defiant statements came on the eve of today’s Security Council meeting called by the United States to endorse a resolution setting a deadline for Iraq to withdraw or face the prospect of military action.

The statements offered no hint of compliance with U.N. demands for an unconditional withdrawal. Washington and the four other permanent members of the Security Council have rejected prior negotiations and so far have blocked Iraqi attempts to split their alliance on the issue.

Ramadan, opening an Arab youth conference on the Persian Gulf crisis, took an unbending line in his remarks. The Iraqi armed forces, he said, would “drive out the aggressors, the traitors and the (U.S.) agents from Arab and Islamic land,” referring to the American-led multinational forces, including Arab troops, deployed in Saudi Arabia.

Ramadan, a high-ranking and close confidant of President Saddam Hussein, said Iraq has “a quantity of sophisticated weapons and hardy combatants” and reasserted what he called Baghdad’s historical rights to Kuwait.

Hundreds of Arab students, crowding a hotel meeting hall, cheered his remarks, according to press reports from the Iraqi capital.

Al Thawra warned other Security Council members to reject the American-proposed resolution.

“Those who are helping Bush issue a war resolution and legitimizing his aggressive and conspicuous plot,” the government daily declared, “are not only damaging the U.N.’s message and role but are also harming its reputation and credibility.”

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz delivered another message of dogged defiance in the face of the pending Security Council meeting. “Iraq,” he said, “which believes in peace and justice, will never succumb to pressure.”

The council is expected to set a deadline of Jan. 15 for an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, the first time a date has been set for compliance with the initial U.N. resolution in the crisis, adopted Aug. 2, the day that Iraq invaded Kuwait.

In Jordan on Wednesday, three Americans and 10 Britons left for Europe, one day after being freed by Iraqi authorities, and 77 Italians left Baghdad aboard an Iraqi Airways flight.

Five freed Germans were also preparing to leave Jordan for home. And six of the 47 Canadians held in Iraq and Kuwati will be freed, Robert Cordett, a member of Canada’s Parliament, said in Baghdad.

Also in Baghdad, Muhammad Ali’s manager said 14 U.S. hostages will be allowed to go home with the former world heavyweight boxing champion, wire services reported.

Ali met Tuesday with Saddam Hussein and is expected to receive a list today of the Americans to be freed, manager Ali Jaber told reporters. Ali’s party is expected to return to the United States through Jordan on Saturday.

About 700 Americans and more than 1,000 Britons make up the bulk of the estimated 2,000 foreigners who have been prevented from leaving the country since Iraq invaded Kuwait.

In Washington, the State Department announced that Iraqi soldiers have seized two more Americans in their homes in Kuwait and reportedly have begun “intensified house-to-house searches for Westerners,” perhaps to replace those freed in recent hostage releases.

In addition, five Americans detained at a Baghdad hotel were moved to strategic sites to serve as so-called human shields against attack by U.S.-led forces, the department said.

“We find that there is an inescapable irony in the fact that Saddam Hussein is attempting to appear magnanimous by releasing hostages while, at the same time, he intensifies house-to-house searches for more to take their place,” said spokesman Richard Boucher.

Boucher said that Secretary of State James A. Baker III called Ambassador W. Nathaniel Howell III at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait city to offer encouragement as the Iraqi siege of the station neared the end of its fourth month.

He refused to say how much longer the embassy might stay open.

“We have always said that they will stay there as long as they can,” Boucher said. “They have the water from the well. They have canned food. The garden is now yielding some salad for them.”