US President George Bush today vowed that if his country is called into war against Iraq it will "act decisively" and prevail.
Speaking to soldiers at a US army base in Texas, Mr Bush said: "If force becomes necessary to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction ... to secure our country and to keep the peace, America will act deliberately, America will act decisively, and America will prevail because we've got the finest military in the world".
He told thousands of cheering soldiers at Fort Hood Army Base Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had shown with certainty that he holds in contempt the United Nations and its November resolution demanding Iraqi disarmament, and that although voluntary disarmament was preferred it was up to Saddam to take steps to avoid war.
"Should Saddam seal his fate by refusing to disarm, by ignoring the opinion of the world, you'll be fighting not to conquer anybody but to liberate people," he said.
Meanwhile a state-run Iraqi newspaper has described US President Bush as "the master of evil-doers" as the military build-up in the Gulf continued.
"Bush remains the first evil-doer or the master of evil-doers on earth," Al-Iraqsaid in today's front-page editorial.
It said he had talked about a peaceful solution only to defuse rising global public anger: "[The] truth of the matter is that Bush wanted . . . to cool down the climate after the rise of temperature of global public anger over his threats and preparations for aggression against Iraq".
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Pakistan and hundreds joined a march in the pro-Western Gulf state of Bahrain to protest against the threatened attack on Iraq.
In Iraq, the UN inspectors continued their hunt for evidence of chemical, biological and nuclear arms on Friday, a Muslim day of rest.
Missile experts visited a state company involved in the manufacture of mechanical parts for rockets 60 kilometres southeast of the capital Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.
A UN team also went to Ramadi, west of Baghdad, and biological experts left for Basra, south of Baghdad; it was not clear what sites they would visit there.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tareq Aziz, accused Washington yesterday of "an imperialist design" to invade his oil-rich country regardless of the verdict of the inspectors, who must report their findings to the Security Council by January 27th.