World News 19-08-2002 Russia And Iraq Seal Massive Trade Deal who: President Vladimir Putin what: Agrees £27billion trade deal with Iraq where: MOSCOW when: Yesterday snippet: "Russia has dealt a potentially serious blow to American attempts to isolate Iraq," reports The Telegraph this morning, "after it announced a £27 billion trade agreement with Saddam Hussein." Although the contracts will require United Nations approval, Moscow officials says they have agreed a five year deal to trade in oil, electrical energy, chemical products, irrigation, railroad construction and transport. The the agreement may well be sealed at "a high-profile signing ceremony" in Baghdad. Russia`s president Vladimir Putin is already "building relations with the other countries that make up what George W. Bush, US president, has called an `axis of evil`," says The Financial Times. "Last month, Russia proposed a 10-year economic programme with Iran that would include the supply of five more nuclear reactors in addition to one already under construction." Meanwhile, The Independent reports that US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has warned of the danger of hostile nations aquiring cruise missiles to launch attacks on the US or American targets abroad. The Times says General "Stormin`" Norman Schwarzkopf opposes US military action against the rogue state without international consensus. And in The Scotsman, senior Pentagon adviser Richard Perle says that the US can launch an attack on Iraq without the help of NATO allies, saying that only the UK is "of some importance" to their military strategy. [... more]

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