Putin snubs Blair by refusing to lift sanctions

Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin failed to resolve their deep differences over Iraq yesterday, when the Russian President openly mocked the failure of the United States and Britain to find Saddam Hussein or his alleged weap-ons of mass destruction.

In an extraordinary snub to Mr Blair, Mr Putin told a joint press conference near Moscow that Russia would not bow to American and British demands for the early lifting of sanctions against Iraq until there was proof that Iraq possessed the weapons the Allies had said justified the war.

Mr Blair was left embarrassed when Mr Putin said with heavy irony: "Where is Saddam? Where are these arsenals – if they were really there? Maybe he is sitting somewhere in a secret bunker with plans to blow all this stuff up at the last minute, threatening hundreds of human lives."

The Russian President added: "Sanctions can only be removed if there is no suspicion and it is only the [United Nations] Security Council that can remove these sanctions because it imposed them in the first place."

Mr Blair had hoped to use his day trip to Russia to rebuild relations with Mr Putin but left without securing support for a UN resolution on the lifting of sanctions – a move that Russia has the power to veto.

The visit was a big setback to the Prime Minister's drive to reunite the fractured international community after the war. Russia gave a clear signal that it would maintain the alliance it forged with France and Germany over Iraq.

It was the second time in six months that Mr Blair has been snubbed by Mr Putin on a visit to Russia even though the two men have developed a good working relationship. Last October, the Russian President dismissed as "propagandistic" claims that Saddam had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction.

Yesterday, Mr Putin welcomed Mr Blair with a warm embrace in the woods next to his dacha at Novo Ogarevo near Moscow. But after a few hours of talks, the mood was distinctly chilly when the two leaders held an hour-long press conference.

Mr Putin stressed the need for the UN to play a key role in the reconstruction of Iraq, saying that a settlement reached without its input "would hardly be long-lasting, stable or fair". He called for UN weapons inspectors to return to Iraq and for the oil-for-food programme to be expanded and kept under UN control, contradicting America's position that UN control over Iraq's oil revenues should be ended.

Mr Blair stuck to his guns, saying that while America and Britain accepted the need for the UN to play a central role in Iraq, they could not hand over complete control to it. He said other Security Council members should accept that "our soldiers, having fought and died in respect of this war in Iraq, cannot simply hand over Iraq to the sole charge of the UN whilst coalition forces are there on the ground stabilising the situation".

The Prime Minister warned of the "real danger" to the international community if it did not put behind it divisions caused by the Iraq conflict."I think that it can be made to work, but it requires goodwill and it requires a real vision and acceptance that this strategic partnership is the only alternative to a world which would break up into different poles of power, acting as rivals to one another, with every single dispute in the world being played off against these different poles of power. That is a real danger for our world."

* The Allies' search for weapons of mass destruction has been boosted by the surrender of Iraq's former oil minister, Amer Mohammed Rashid, who had intimate knowledge of Saddam Hussein's missile systems. American officials confirmed that Mr Rashid, who was known as the "Missile Man", gave himself up on Monday and had been taken into custody. He was number 47 on the Pentagon's most-wanted list of 55 officials of the former Iraqi regime. Walid Hamid Tawfiq al-Tikriti, the former governor of Basra province, surrendered yesterday. Mr Tikriti, who was number 44 on the list, had been hiding in Baghdad.