Bush, Congress haggle

WASHINGTON -- President Bush expressed deep reservations Tuesday about an alternative congressional measure authorizing force against Iraq, and demanded that the United Nations "put some calcium in the backbone" as it works up its own resolution on disarming Baghdad.\nCongress, while generally supporting the president's campaign against Iraq, has haggled with the White House over the wording of the resolution.\nBush summoned House members of both parties to the White House late Tuesday afternoon to spur progress, and was to meet with top Senate and House leaders on Iraq Wednesday morning.\nForeign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., and senior committee member Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., on Monday circulated an alternative proposal that they said "helps the president attract strong bipartisan support in Congress." Their draft resolution would focus on authorizing the use of force against Iraq as opposed to the entire region and make clear that dismantling Iraq's weapons of mass destruction would be the primary reason for using force.\n"I don't want to get a resolution which ties my hands," Bush told reporters after meeting with lawmakers on terrorism insurance. Bush insisted on a resolution that "sends a clear signal to the world that this country is determined to disarm Iraq, and thereby bring peace to the world."\nAsked about the Lugar-Biden compromise, Bush said he did not want a congressional resolution weaker than one passed by lawmakers in 1998.\n"My question is, what's changed? Why would Congress want to weaken a resolution?" Bush said. Saddam, he said, is "more of a threat four years later."\n"All of us recognize a military option is not the first choice. Disarming this man is, because he poses a true threat to the United States, and we've just got to work together to get something done," Bush said.\nWhite House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the Lugar-Biden measure "cuts back the existing authority under current United Nations Security Council resolutions and previous laws passed by the Congress."\nAccording to Fleischer, the Lugar-Biden measure fails to demand that Saddam halt support for terrorism, stop repressing Iraqis such as Kurds, or cease threatening his neighbors.\nThe Lugar-Biden alternative leaves unclear whether allied pilots could continue to patrol no-fly zones, said another White House spokesman, Sean McCormack.\nThe five permanent U.N. Security Council members met at the United Nations Tuesday to discuss key elements of a U.S.-British draft resolution--chiefly the threat of force against Saddam if he fails to comply with inspections and whether member states would be free to carry out the use of that force on their own.\nAmbassadors from the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France said at the end of the closed-door meeting that they would continue discussions.\nThe United States and Britain want authorization to use military force if Iraq doesn't comply with inspectors. They face opposition from three veto-wielding council members--Russia, France and China--who oppose a resolution sanctioning military action at this point.\nFrench Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Monday that France was interested in a first resolution demanding a return to inspections, followed by a second resolution threatening military action if Iraq fails to comply. The United States seeks a single resolution doing both.