Bush Presses Iraq Case to More Leaders

President Bush met with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien on Monday and telephoned the leaders of the United Nations, the European Union, Turkey and Egypt as he sought allies for a new U.S. initiative against Iraq.

As was the case after calls Bush made to the leaders of Russia, France and China last week, there was little public indication that he was gaining support. But an administration official reported signs that Bush was making headway.

The administration’s diplomacy on Iraq is moving at an urgent pace, heading toward a speech Bush will deliver Thursday to the U.N. General Assembly. In his remarks, Bush is expected to argue for a new international effort to force Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to disarm or face military action.

The Bush administration is working on a timetable for action, beginning with a U.N. resolution that would both toughen the terms of and accelerate Iraq’s disarmament, according to administration officials.

U.S. officials would like the U.N. Security Council to debate and pass a resolution within a few weeks. It would probably be introduced by Britain.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Monday that the administration believes the international community is interested in toughening the terms for removing Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

“It does appear that a movement is budding to put some force into previous U.N. resolutions,” Fleischer told reporters en route to Bush’s meeting with Chretien in Detroit.

Upon passage of a new U.N. resolution, Washington would like to see U.N. weapons inspectors return to Baghdad within four to six weeks, State Department officials said Monday.

One of the most controversial questions, both within the administration and at the United Nations, is how much time Hussein’s regime would have to fully disarm. Behind the scenes, some countries are expressing concern that the United States will seek such a short time frame that it will be simply a pretext to use force.

But a well-placed U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Monday that the timing might prove to be irrelevant.

“We feel that the time period is almost moot,” the official said. “Saddam Hussein will give us an excuse. He’ll balk at something within the first few weeks of the process, and that’ll be the material breach that will allow us to move forward with another option.”

Chretien has been among the most upfront of U.S. allies in opposing military action. Neither Bush nor Chretien spoke publicly about Iraq after their private meeting here, studiously avoiding the subject as they focused during back-to-back speeches on the issue of border security.

Fleischer said Bush told Chretien that Iraq is in violation of existing U.N. resolutions but did not ask Canada to change its view.

Bush and Chretien came to Detroit for a ceremony at a U.S. Customs Service station at the Ambassador Bridge, where high-tech equipment has been introduced to make it easier for frequent travelers and pre-approved cargo trucks to pass inspection points.

As they drove five minutes from their meeting in downtown Detroit to the base of the bridge, the two leaders encountered about two dozen protesters opposed to war with Iraq

“Drop Bush, not bombs,” read one of their signs.

Last week, Chretien had said he would listen to Bush’s argument on Iraq. But Chretien said he had not yet seen reason to support a military operation, echoing other global leaders who have said Bush needs to make a stronger case.

“It has been agreed with Mr. Bush that if the time comes where there is evidence, we will talk about it and they will produce that evidence,” Chretien said last week in Ottawa.

The meeting in this border city that symbolizes the close commercial relationship between the United States and Canada was part of the concentrated diplomatic activity to which Bush has devoted himself since Friday.

But at nearly every turn so far, the president has been rebuffed.

Only British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who flew across the Atlantic and back on Saturday to meet with Bush at Camp David, has given anything resembling a strong endorsement.

Bush spoke by telephone Friday with three presidents--Jacques Chirac of France, Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Jiang Zemin of China. None offered public support afterward for an attack on Iraq.

Chirac, however, has proposed a two-step course that could lead to a war--but only with strong U.N. support. Under his proposal, the Security Council would order inspections, and Iraq would be given three weeks to comply with the mandate. Failure to permit the inspections would be met with force if a second Security Council measure approved military operations.

Although Fleischer did not comment directly on the proposal, a question about it prompted his remark about a movement to toughen existing U.N. resolutions.

Bush began Monday with a series of telephone calls on Iraq. Fleischer said the president spoke with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer of Turkey, a country that could be a key staging area for a military offensive against Iraq. He also spoke with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the current head of the European Union, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In addition, he called Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, key leaders in the Arab world.

“The president is calling as part of his ongoing consultations with leaders around the world about the situation in Iraq, and also urging them to listen carefully to his speech to the United Nations,” Fleischer said.

In his speech, Bush is expected to emphasize that the world should act because Hussein is in violation of all the resolutions concerning Iraq that the U.N. has adopted since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

“He’s violated every resolution on Iraq,” a senior State Department official said Monday. “The burden can’t be on us to prove that he’s building new weapons of mass destruction. The burden should be on him.”

The administration is still debating whether Bush himself should be the one to call for a tougher U.N. resolution. As of Monday, a draft of the president’s speech outlined the case against Iraq in strong language but did not call for a resolution.

The strategy, discussed during Bush’s weekend meeting with Blair, is to have Britain argue the case with key countries and then mediate an agreement on how intrusive or coercive to make new weapons inspections.

The Ambassador Bridge, where Bush visited the customs station, is the most heavily traveled U.S. border crossing. More than any other crossing, the bridge connecting Detroit with Windsor, Ontario, epitomizes the dilemma posed along the border in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks: how to increase security while not slowing the commerce on which communities on both sides of the border depend.

The two nations have cooperated to speed passage of those who pass frequently through the checkpoint, issuing special identification cards and installing high-tech scanners to monitor the traffic, making it possible for approved truckers to speed through dedicated lanes. The system is similar to one already employed along the border between Washington state and British Columbia.

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Gerstenzang reported from Detroit and Wright from Washington.