Condoleezza Rice: Bush would maintain sanctions on Iraq

WASHINGTON — As president, George W. Bush plans to ensure that sanctions remain on Iraq.

Condoleezza Rice, a foreign policy adviser to Bush, said the United States will make greater use of economic sanctions on rivals and enemies of Washington. Ms. Rice cited Iraq and its threat to the Middle East.

Ms. Rice said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is the prototype of this threat. "The United States must maintain forces to contain such a threat," she told the Fletcher Conference on Thursday. "Because if the United States is blackmailable, it is not capable of acting with freedom of action in places like the Persian Gulf."

Part of the blackmail, are threats from weapons of mass destruction, cyberterrorism and other terrorism, she said. Ms. Rice said the Bush administration supports the establishment of a national missile defense system.

"Any discussion of capabilities must include the ability to defend against these threats and must include ballistic missile defense" Ms. Rice said. "It is not that ballistic missile defense needs to be aimed at the thousands of Soviet weapons, but rather at the smaller threats."

On Sunday, the London-based Telegraph daily quoted Western intelligence sources as saying that Saddam has stockpiled chemical and biological weapons in schools and hospitals. This includes VX and anthrax.

Ms. Rice said the United States has neglected trade and economic power in imposing its will on the global stage. She said any administration can be overextended in foreign commitments and miss opportunities to foster democracy.

"Peace must be maintained through the prevention of conflict of global strategic significance," she said. "There will be no extension of prosperity, no extension of democracy, if big conflicts again dot the globe."

Ms. Rice mentioned East Asia and the Persian Gulf. At the Fletcher Conference, Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said the United States will "face clever, adaptive adversaries."

"They will continue to seek and exploit our perceived weaknesses," Shelton said."I believe they will use asymmetric warfare to thwart or sap our will. The latest example of that was the USS Cole"

During his Gulf tour, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen tried to bolster cooperation of regional states against the threat of weapons of mass destruction from Iran and Iraq.

"I will encourage the Gulf states to continue the greater cooperation of looking at threats through a more regional perspective," Cohen, said. "They are starting to focus now on how they can share through exercises, techniques, some technologies and cooperation in humanitarian types of efforts."

Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are participating in the Cooperation Defense Initiative.