RP supporting US-led coalition

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Philippines and 44 other nations have agreed to join or support a "coalition of the willing" against Iraq and would back a US-led invasion that now appears imminent, the United States said Tuesday.

Those countries — 30 of which were identified as members of the coalition — have offered troops, overflight rights, logistical support or a role in post-war Iraqi reconstruction projects, the State Department said.

"We now have a coalition of the willing that includes some 30 nations who have publicly said they can be included in such a listing," Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters.

Shortly after Powell spoke, the State Department released a list of countries that it said wanted to be included in what it called the "Coalition for the Immediate Disarmament of Iraq."

They are Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Britain, Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

"There are 15 other nations who for one reason or another do not yet wish to be publicly named but will be supporting the coalition," Powell said, adding that those countries would be identified in due course.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that despite the failure to win a new UN mandate for the use of force in Iraq, Washington had managed to assemble a larger coalition than it had for the first Gulf War in 1991.

However, he allowed that the standard for inclusion in the current grouping was different than it was 12 years ago when some 31 countries provided actual military personnel or equipment.

And, he conceded that some of the 45 might be offering only moral support.

"They may not be deploying, they may not be providing us a specific resource, they may just be allowing access, overflight or other participation in that way or they may have just decided they want to be publicly associated with the effort to disarm Iraq," Boucher said.

Boucher later amended the list of countries at his daily news briefing, removing Bulgaria and adding Iceland.

It was not clear why the change was made, particularly because Bulgaria supported the now-withdrawn US-British-Spanish proposed resolution in the UN Security Council resolution that would have authorized force against Iraq.

Of the 15 unnamed coalition backers, officials indicated six of them were likely the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which backed the 1991 Gulf War.

The GCC as a whole has agreed to help provide for the defense of Kuwait in the event of a new war with Iraq while Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have all made facilities available to the US military.

Other countries believed to be among the unnamed are Israel and Jordan.

Conspicuously absent from the list of countries willing to be identified as a coalition members were France, Germany, Russia and China — which all opposed the fallen US-British-Spanish Security Council resolution.

None of the so-called "undecided six" council members — Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, Mexico and Pakistan — whose true positions on that resolution may now never be known, appeared on the list either.

In addition, not a single Arab nation was listed.

The United States’ two closest neighbors, Canada and Mexico, were also missing from the list and Boucher expressed disappointment that they had opted not to support a military operation in Iraq.

"We are disappointed that some of our closest allies, including Canada, do not agree on the urgent need for action," he said.

Of Mexico, he said: ‘We are disappointed they do not share our urgent sense that the world community needs to quickly and decisively counter the threat that Iraq represents."

Mexican President Vicente Fox said on Monday that he "regretted" that the US administration had embarked upon the route toward war.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said yesterday that Canada would not join the coalition in the absence of UN approval for military action.