Bush Said to OK Plan for Showdown With Iraq : Persian Gulf: Administration officials play down the story and reject suggestion such military action would be politically motivated.

With no sign that Iraq is ready to open up its government ministries to weapons inspections by a U.N. team, President Bush and his national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, have approved a plan for a new military confrontation with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that would coincide with the Republican National Convention, the New York Times reported in its Sunday editions.

Quoting an unidentified American official, the newspaper reported from Houston, the site of the convention, that the United States and its allies have “decided to provoke a confrontation” with Iraq, beginning Monday, if Hussein rejects an anticipated renewed attempt to inspect military ministries and installations for evidence of an Iraqi program of developing nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

White House officials sought to play down the story, saying that any such military action would have to be taken under the umbrella of the United Nations, rather than on the decision of the United States and its Gulf War allies, and they were particularly sensitive to the suggestion that there was any linkage between military action and the political convention.

Still, even as officials moved quickly to minimize the potential political embarrassment from such a linkage, it was suggested to the Los Angeles Times on Saturday night that the targets mentioned in the report were accurate, and a Pentagon official said there has been an increase in preparation.

There would appear to be neither an overriding military nor political reason for carrying out a military operation this week; in fact, a dramatic bombing raid on Baghdad could detract from a carefully orchestrated effort in Houston to repair Bush’s image, while a military operation in the weeks following the convention might then end up burnishing that image and helping the President regain some of the standing he enjoyed at the end of the war in 1991.

Nevertheless, the disclosure of the planning threatened to rivet attention in Houston today on the risk of renewed warfare, throwing a monkey wrench into GOP efforts to concentrate on the task of persuading voters that Bush is ready to present an effective plan for stimulating the nation’s economy.

Sean Walsh, a White House spokesman, and other White House officials stressed that the decision on which sites to inspect rests solely with the U.N. team, and individual countries could not dictate the sites or the timing of the inspections. They said the U.N. resolutions mandating the inspections require the team to go anyplace at any time to ferret out weapons of mass destruction.

Said another White House official: “I’m not only denying it, but it’s outrageous to say that somehow we are manipulating this process--as if we could--and to say it’s for political purposes is outrageous and I challenge anyone to find one shred of evidence to justify this story.”

According to the New York Times, nine targets have been selected. If the first, the Ministry of Military Industrialization, was not opened up to the inspectors, raids on the building in Baghdad would be launched swiftly from a U.S. aircraft carrier.

The inspectors would then proceed to a second target, the Ministry of Defense. If they were denied access, that ministry would be struck. Similar confrontations, followed up by bombing raids, would follow, target by target.

One senior Administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, however, that “the notion that we’re sitting around waiting eagerly to pounce on Monday is wrong.”

But, he said, the United States and two of its chief Gulf War allies--Britain and France--have developed military options that could be put into play at some point if access to the government sites is not granted.

A Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that based on “the level of planning and preparation that’s been going on,” he “wouldn’t be surprised if something happens.”

Under the cease-fire agreement that was negotiated at the end of the war, U.N. inspectors are to be granted unimpeded access to Iraqi installations suspected of housing evidence of Hussein’s weapons buildup. Iraq, since then, has balked at providing such access, giving in only when a military clash appeared imminent.

Times staff writers Cathleen Decker, Douglas Jehl and William J. Eaton in Houston, and Melissa Healy and John M. Broder in Washington, also contributed to this story.