Bush, Annan Trade Barbs Over Iraq At U.N.

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and US President George W. Bush traded fresh barbs over Iraq at a sombre meeting of world leaders held in the shadow of Iraq's ongoing bloodshed.
Opening the UN's annual debate, Annan said Iraqi prisoners had been "disgracefully abused" and made veiled references to the United States in a wide-ranging speech calling on all nations to obey the rule of law.
Bush fired back that the United States had enforced "the just demands of the world" by ousting Saddam Hussein in a war that has left world opinion still bitterly divided more than one year after the US-led invasion.
Aides had insisted Annan, an outspoken critic of the war who last week called it "illegal," would be keen to avoid re-opening old wounds. But he cited the prisoner abuse among "flagrant" examples of lawlessness across the globe.
"In Iraq, we see civilians massacred in cold blood, while relief workers, journalists and other non-combatants are taken hostage and put to death in the most barbarous fashion," Annan said with Bush in the audience.
"At the same time, we have seen Iraqi prisoners disgracefully abused," he said, drawing a parallel between the Iraq bloodshed and the prisoner scandal in a way destined to irk the US administration.
Annan has repeatedly been at odds with Bush's contention that the UN Security Council, which had passed a resolution threatening "serious consequences" for Saddam, had provided the legal basis for the war.
The UN chief last week called the war "illegal" and on Tuesday said Security Council resolutions were the "best foundation" for bringing law to a lawless world marked by bloodshed, genocide and attacks on the innocent.
But Bush, who said the United Nations risked becoming irrelevant last year by failing to come to consensus on Iraq, again defended the war and called on the world community to help that country achieve democracy and stability.
"The Security Council promised serious consequences for his defiance and the commitments we make must have meaning," the US president said in a speech that received polite applause from the dignitaries on hand.
"When we say serious consequences, for the sake of peace there must be serious consequences," Bush said. "And so a coalition of nations enforced the just demands of the world."
Annan also repeated a warning he gave the assembly last year, that the United Nations was at a "fork in the road" following the UN split over the US decision to launch the war without full backing from the UN Security Council.
With a high-level panel of experts due to report to Annan in December on how to reform the council, in an effort to prevent a repeat of the international crisis, he appealed to world leaders to take action.
"If you, the political leaders of the world, cannot agree or reach agreement on the way forward, history will take the decision for you, and the interests of your peoples may go by default," Annan said.
"More than ever, the world needs an effective mechanism through which to see common solutions to common problems. That is what this organisation was created for," he said.
Amid the disagreement over Iraq, however, the two found common ground on the crisis in Sudan just days after the Security Council passed a new resolution pressing Khartoum to end the bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region.
Sudan has resisted international pressure over the crisis, which has left an estimated 50,000 people dead, but both Bush and Annan said the world must do more to end the spiral of death and devastation.
"Things are happening there which must shock the conscience of every human being," Annan said, calling on the world to support an international rule of law.
"History will judge us very harshly if we let ourselves be deflected in this task or think we are excused from it by invocations of national sovereignty," he said.
Tuesday's session, due to wrap up at 2300 GMT, opened a two-week meeting of presidents, ministers and other leaders from around the globe.