Germany warns of US attack on Iraq

BERLIN: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer cautioned against a possible US attack on Iraq on Saturday, stressing the need to solve the broader Middle East conflict first.


"I can only warn against talking about or considering a war against Iraq without thinking of the consequences and without a political concept for the whole Middle East," Schroeder told a rally of his Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Hanover.


Fischer expressed a similar position in a television interview to be broadcast on Sunday.


"To talk now of having to push through a change in government in Baghdad with a military intervention, that's a false assessment of priorities," he said.


Schroeder reiterated his view that Germany stood beside the United States after the September 11 attacks, but was not prepared to engage in "adventures".


"Germany is no longer a country where chequebook diplomacy replaces politics," he said on Saturday.


On Tuesday, Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac cautioned that they could not support a US assault on Iraq without a United Nations mandate, which US and British officials argue is not legally necessary.


On Thursday, Baghdad hinted it might let UN inspectors return to investigate its suspected weapons programmes for the first time since 1998 as US President George W Bush reaffirmed his aim of toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.


Washington said Iraq's offer of talks on arms inspectors did not alter its ultimate goal of seeing Saddam removed from power.


Schroeder hopes to boost support for the SDP in a September election by stressing his opposition to a possible U.S. attack on Iraq, party officials said on Friday.


SPD General Secretary Franz Muentefering said even if Germany were not involved in an attack, a war would do more damage to its sagging economy, adding that the SPD's campaign slogan "We go our own way" also applied to foreign policy.