Turkish Chief Sees U.S. Hypocrisy

A day after Turkey hosted a regional meeting on the escalating U.S.-Iraq showdown, the head of Turkey's ruling party accused the United States and other countries of hypocrisy in demanding that Saddam Hussein give up weapons of mass destruction while holding on to their own arsenals.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, chairman of the governing Justice and Development Party, said eliminating nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons in Iraq was a worthy goal.

"This sounds good", he said in his first appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "But let's not kid ourselves. No one is interested in eliminating their own weapons of mass destruction. They're interested in strengthening their own weapons of mass destruction."

Asked if he was accusing the United States of hypocrisy, Erdogan said: "I meant all the countries in the world. The United States is also included."

Erdogan said Turkey would wait for a decision from the U.N. Security Council before deciding whether to support military action against Iraq. "The decision which is important for us is the decision of the U.N. Security Council", he said.

He also noted the "major price" Turkey paid after the 1991 Gulf War in terms of Kurdish refugees, lost lives, and economic disruption, which he put at $100 billion.

"We do not want to pay the same prices one more time", he said.

Erdogan is widely expected to become prime minister after he runs in parliamentary by-elections in March.

U.S. military teams have been surveying Turkish ports and air bases that U.S. troops could use for an attack on Iraq, Turkey's southern neighbor.

Turkey has so far refused to grant permission to the United States to base troops in Turkey but is expected to approve at least a limited deployment in the coming weeks.

Burden On Iraq

Separately, Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said Baghdad could still do more to avert a U.S.-led war.

Turkey hosted a meeting of six Middle Eastern states on Thursday that issued a call on Baghdad to be "more active" in cooperating with United Nations inspectors seeking evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

In recent days the United States has stressed that for war to be avoided, Baghdad must cooperate with inspectors. U.S. officials have said so far they are not satisfied that cooperation has occurred.

Washington is pressing its close NATO ally for an open pledge to help out in any war, but Turkey is dragging its feet, waiting to see the results of an initial report by arms inspectors on Monday.

"There is much Iraq can do before the 27^th or the 28^th of the month. Only Iraq can contribute to fully implementing the Security Council resolutions and winning a clean report", Gul said before departing for Davos. "The Iraqi leadership will make the greatest contribution to preventing this war."

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, whose country among Western states has been the most outspoken in opposing armed action, welcomed the conference declaration. "We appreciated very much the result of the conference and especially the strong message to the Iraq government that there must be full compliance", Fischer told reporters after meeting his Turkish counterpart as part of a regional tour. "Iraq must understand how serious the situation is and I think it was also very important that the conference gave a strong message for a peaceful resolution of the crisis", he said.

The declaration issued after the meeting of five Iraqi neighbours - Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, and Iran - as well as Egypt also stressed the importance of the U.N. Security Council in ratifying any military action, a reference seen as an indirect caution to Washington not to act alone.