CAMERON SIMPSON <!--endbyline-->
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2.7.5 -->THE US said yesterday that it plans to secure Iraqi oilfields if it invades the country and it is looking at the possibility of using oil production to pay for post-war reconstruction. However, last night it was warned that it would "reap a terrible whirlwind" if it went ahead with this strategy in a second Gulf war. Colin Powell, the US secretary of state,told NBC's Meet the Press: "The oilfields are the property of the Iraqi people. And if the coalition of forces goes into those oil fields, we would want to protect those fields and make sure they are used to benefit the people of Iraq and are not destroyed or damaged by the failing regime on the way out the door." Mr Powell said that revenue generated from the oilfields would be used "in accordance with international law and to benefit the people of Iraq". Administration officials also say they planned to keep the United Nations oil-for-food programme running, at least temporarily, to ensure that post-invasion oil dollars are spent on the country's basic needs. International oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, BP, and Shell would want to take part in any rehabilitation of the country's oil industry, analysts said. However, as the Bush administration neared a decision on whether to take military action to eliminate Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, Mr Powell said it was seeking a diplomatic solution to the nuclear crisis with North Korea. The apparent inconsistency in US foreign policy towards Iraq was seized upon by George Galloway, Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin. He said: "The point of the invasion is to steal Iraq's oil. This is naked confirmation that they intend to seize it, ramp up production, and thus cut the price of oil. "They are no longer hiding the purpose of aggression, and they are fooling themselves if they think they are fooling the Arab population. I am speaking from Egypt, where a US state department poll has just revealed that only 6% of Egyptians have a favourable view of the United States. They are going to reap a terrible whirlwind from all of this." Iraq sits on top of the world's second largest oil reserves, but war and a decade of sanctions has withered its oil infrastructure and official exports. The Bush administration is carefully weighing how oil policy in a post-Saddam Iraq might affect oil prices, officials say. Its decision could have implications for the fragile global economy. Increasing Iraqi oil production may help Western nations that consume oil, including the US, by lowering oil prices. However, it could hurt key US oil-producing allies, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, by reducing their revenues from oil sales. As UN arms experts searched four suspect sites in Iraq, Washington signalled it was increasing the pressure on Baghdad by sending more troops, aircraft. and ships to the Gulf. US officials said Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, had signed an order to move thousands of troops, dozens of strike aircraft and probably two more aircraft carrier battle groups to the Gulf, starting early next month. The deployment would at least double the 50,000 US military personnel already near Iraq, and more might be sent in February, US officials said. US and British warplanes yesterday attacked two Iraqi radar sites after Iraqi forces moved them into the southern "no-fly" zone, the US central command said, adding that the radar system posed a threat to allied patrols over the zone. More than 100 UN weapons inspectors are now in Iraq, but the 200 searches they have carried out since November 27 have apparently uncovered no trace of the chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programmes Washington insists Iraq is pursuing. Mr Powell, indicating frustration with the inspectors' slow progress, said: "I think that this can't go on indefinitely. The president has not made a decision yet with respect to the use of military force or with respect to going back to the United Nations. "Of course we're positioning ourselves - positioning our military forces for whatever might be required."(sorry, can't post link yet, from "The Herald" in UK)
