Diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis with Iraq over UN arms inspections were at a "critical stage" yesterday as more forces headed for Kuwait.
Rumours that the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, might personally intercede with a mission to Baghdad were given some weight when the Russian President, Mr Boris Yeltsin, said Mr Annan had agreed to intercede personally. Mr Annan's spokesman said there were no immediate plans to do so, although a 10-day trip to the Middle East has been cancelled.
Mr Fred Eckhard said Mr Annan did not exclude such a trip in the future and was waiting to see what the Security Council wanted him to do, and if "he feels he can accomplish something by going".
Iraq and the United States continued their mutually aggressive language as the US Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, said American firepower in the Gulf was enough to take on Iraq, and Baghdad said it was ready to confront superior odds.
Mr Cohen, in Kuwait on the second leg of a Gulf tour, said the US has now enough military assets in the region to take on President Saddam. A diplomatic solution to the crisis depends on the Iraqi leader, he told reporters after talks with Kuwait's emir, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
"We have sufficient assets to carry out any military option that is necessary," Mr Cohen said.
The Defence Secretary stressed that the focus of military action would be to curtail Iraq's capacity to produce or use weapons of mass destruction, and not to topple President Saddam.
Iraq opened an Arab diplomatic offensive of its own on Monday, while saying its army was ready to repel any attack and that Baghdad would not give in to US threats. In an effort to capitalise on regional opposition to a military strike, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mr Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf, travelled to Damascus. He will also go to Cairo, Amman and other Arab capitals.
In the Armenian capital, Yerevan, an aircraft carrying Russian deputies and journalists to Iraq remained on the ground yesterday, as diplomats confirmed the US had blocked United Nations authorisation for the flight.
At the UN headquarters in New York, a western diplomat on the 15-nation sanctions committee said that Washington "put a hold on the flight" on Friday on the grounds that it was not of an urgent humanitarian nature.
Earlier, ITAR-TASS reported the plane, which is carrying 57 deputies from the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, and 73 journalists, could be blocked for up to a week. The organisers of the flight had planned to land in Baghdad after flying over Azerbaijan and Iran, but were refused permission by the UN committee in charge of enforcing sanctions against Iraq.
The ultra-nationalist Russian leader, Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who is heading the Russian delegation, said he hoped the flight would leave for Iraq this morning.