NY TIMES FEB 4, 02 MONDAY
Russian Aide Warns U.S. Not to Extend War to Iraq
By STEVEN ERLANGER

MUNICH, Feb. 3 — Russia's defense minister, Sergei B. Ivanov, said today that Moscow did not support an extension of the war on terrorism to include Iraq, and he warned the Bush administration to remain within international law, implying that any new attacks should have a mandate from the United Nations.

Although Russia considers the American-led war in Afghanistan legitimate, "any actions taken by the states and international organizations against terrorists, including the use of force, should be based on norms and principles of international law," Mr. Ivanov told security officials and experts from more than 40 countries gathered here.

Apparently in an effort to ease tension over the Iraq issue, the Russian prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, said on Saturday that Moscow was optimistic about prospects for an agreement with Iraq that would let United Nations arms monitors back into the country.

Mr. Ivanov's comments came on a day when China also warned the administration not to strike countries that have no clear tie to the Sept. 11 attack on New York and Washington. In a stinging commentary three weeks before President Bush's visit to Beijing, the official New China News Agency said, "No small number of people suspect that by labeling Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an `axis of evil,' the United States seeks to prepare public opinion for possible strikes against those countries under the banner of antiterrorism."

Speaking here today, the Chinese deputy foreign minister, Wang Yi, emphasized that the American-led antiterrorism campaign should not be "arbitrarily" widened.

China, like Russia, has supported the American operation in Afghanistan, but retains close ties to Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Like China, Russia says it has no proof that those nations support terrorism. Washington says they do.

The deputy secretary of defense, Paul D. Wolfowitz, responded to the warnings today by saying the United States has the right to defend itself. "I take strong exception to the view that we need a U.N. mandate to act," he said, adding in reference to NATO members, "We were attacked, and an attack on one is all the justification we need to take action to defend all of us."

But Mr. Ivanov and many European allies are drawing a sharp distinction between the attacks on Afghanistan, justified as self-defense, and attacks on other countries like Iraq, Iran or North Korea.

In Mr. Bush's State of the Union address and in remarks here by Mr. Wolfowitz, the administration has been laying out an argument for taking action against such countries, senior American officials said. Nations like Iraq represent such a clear danger to American and world interests, the argument runs, that the United States cannot wait to be attacked before taking military action.

On Saturday, Mr. Wolfowitz said: "Our approach has been to aim at prevention and not merely punishment. We are at war. Self-defense requires prevention and sometimes pre-emption."

Those words clearly upset Mr. Ivanov and other European officials.

The German defense minister, Rudolf Scharping, said here today that he favored a political strategy for dealing with Iraq rather than a military one. He said it would be "an error" to attack Iraq.

Even Tony Blair, Britain's prime minister and Washington's firmest ally in the war on terrorism, has cautioned against any military strike against Iraq unless a clear connection is found between Baghdad and the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mr. Wolfowitz said that his comments here were intended to send a warning and "start the debate" among allies over what to do about Iraq, Iran and North Korea, and that he did not mean that war was inevitable.

Mr. Ivanov complained about what he called double standards from the West for failing to condemn extremists in the Russian province of Chechnya with the same vigor as it has condemned Osama bin Laden.

While the United States condemns Iraq and Iran, Russia condemns American allies like Saudi Arabia for helping the Chechens, he said. "Not many people in the West like the fact that we have some commercial ties with the countries which you describe as rogue states," Mr. Ivanov said. "Well, we don't like some of your allies like Saudi Arabia or gulf states that give finance to terrorist organizations."

Also today, the NATO secretary general, Lord Robertson, said it was urgent for European members of NATO to spend more on their militaries to be able to fight a modern war. Otherwise, he warned, the United States could become more unilateralist, regarding its partners as unable to fight alongside it.