Bush seeks war aid from 50 countries

The United States set about building an ad hoc coalition for a possible war with Iraq as President George Bush said yesterday that the slightest delay or defiance by Saddam Hussein would invite "the severest consequences".

On the eve of a historic Nato summit welcoming seven new members, Mr Bush said terrorism had supplanted the former Soviet Union as the main threat facing the alliance. "Never has our need for collective defence been more urgent," he told an audience of students in Prague.

He called President Saddam "a unique and urgent threat" and made it clear that Baghdad had to make a complete and truthful inventory" of its weapons of mass destruction by the deadline of 8 December imposed by the United Nations. To deny their existence would be a lie, the President added, "and deception this time will not be tolerated".

More than 50 US embassies are sounding out countries for their assistance in an invasion of Iraq. America intends to cap the Prague summit – which will extend invitations for membership to Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and the three Baltic countries – with a formal endorsement by the alliance of its policy on Iraq. Nato as such will not be involved in any attack.