Iraqis vote for Saddam

Defiant Iraqis lined up to show their support for Saddam Hussein yesterday as Western powers were deadlocked over how to deal with the veteran leader they say threatens world security.

Key Security Council members have failed for three weeks to agree on a US-drafted resolution authorising force against Baghdad, and Iraqis were in a festive mood as they turned out to vote in a presidential referendum Saddam is sure to win.

"With our blood and souls we defend Saddam Hussein," supporters chanted at a polling station in central Baghdad as voters lined up to cast their vote.

Saddam is the only candidate in the referendum which is set to grant him another seven-year term. While the outcome of the vote is a certainty, it comes at a time when the Iraqi leader faces possibly the toughest challenge to his 23-year rule.

US President George W. Bush accuses Saddam of developing weapons of mass destruction and is unwavering in his declared desire to remove the Iraqi leader from power after winning congressional backing for the possible use of force.

Bush also has the support of Britain, but other permanent members of the Security Council are uneasy about Washington's hard-line stance.

Despite attempts at a compromise by the United States and France, which is leading the opposition to the US-drafted resolution, a key council diplomat said: "We're still stuck".

All UN members will have an opportunity to speak today, the first public debate on Iraq.

Yesterday, US and British warplanes attacked an air defence command centre southeast of Baghdad in response to continuing threats against the aircraft policing a "no-fly" zone in southern Iraq, the US military said.

The strike was the latest in an escalating series in recent months in response to what Washington says are increased attempts to shoot down aircraft enforcing no-fly zones set up in northern and southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.

But in Baghdad, Saddam's supporters were jubilant, many of them celebrating victory shortly after polls opened, dancing in the streets and bringing sheep to slaughter.

"This is Iraq, and this is the people of Iraq," Saddam's top deputy Izzat Ibrahim told reporters at the polling station. "How will America fight this great people? How much will America lose and for what reason?"

Nearly 12 million Iraqis were eligible to answer a simple "Yes" or "No" for a new term in office for Saddam, the man who has ruled Iraq since 1979 through the tight grip of the military and police.

"I voted a big 'Yes' to Saddam and a big 'No' to Bush," voter Mohammad Khalil said. "No one can tell us who our leader should or shouldn't be. We want Saddam Hussein."