U.S. plan to invade Iraq raises alarms

LONDON The last thing Europe wants is to be accused of going wobbly on Iraq. But the American talk of overthrowing Saddam Hussein by military force is raising alarms in European governments.

They are saying that any American miscalculation could undermine the international coalition that is fighting against terrorism, and the broad-based diplomacy needed to solve the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians.

They also fear that a drive against Iraq would drive a wedge between Britain and the rest of Europe.

A French official said in an interview in Paris that some of President George W. Bush's conservative aides had become "obsessed about Iraq, while we are obsessed about achieving peace" between Israelis and Palestinians. "The important thing is to build a coalition for peace in the Middle East," he said, "not to build a coalition for war in Iraq."

Washington's increasing talk of "regime change" is hindering diplomatic strategies to press Saddam to open his country again to United Nations inspectors searching for weapons of mass destruction, the French official said.

In Britain, a newspaper reported that Prime Minister Tony Blair was preparing for a significant call-up of military reserves in the fall and that he had pulled an armored division out of training exercises so it could be made available for special deployment his year.

In the House of Commons, Blair said that Britain had gathered extensive evidence that "Saddam Hussein is still trying to develop weapons of mass destruction," and he said that Britain would publish the evidence "at the appropriate time."

Last fall, the British government published the first detailed report that Osama bin Laden was directly linked to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, thus laying down an important predicate for the war in Afghanistan.

There is agreement in European capitals that Saddam's government is dangerous and may need to be confronted one day. But any agreement breaks down over strategic priorities in the Middle East, which Europeans consider neighboring territory for trade and security. With America the lone superpower, they are ever prickly over any hint that the United States is ignoring their views or assuming, as one German official said, "that we are Euro wimps" when it comes to the use of force.

The European Union's top security official, Javier Solana, warned in an interview of a "self-fulfilling prophecy" of war against Iraq. "If Saddam Hussein thinks that this option is inexorable, why would he yield to inspectors?" Solana said.