ROBSON:
And joining me now from Canberra is Prime Minister John Howard and Prime Minister given what we've seen and heard from Colin Powell is war inevitable?
PRIME MINISTER:
I hope that it is not inevitable. Clearly the Powell presentation is compelling, it's convincing and it quite plainly presents the Security Council of the United Nations with the responsibility of enforcing its own decisions. I agree with what was said a moment ago that if the Security Council of the United Nations walks away from its responsibility on this issue then it will do itself enormous historical damage. See, what the Powell presentation revealed was that Iraq has been cheating on and deceiving not the United States but the Security Council of the United Nations because the weapons inspectors, the deception of which was clearly demonstrated in the Powell presentation, are the weapons inspectors of the United Nations, they're not the weapons inspectors of the United States.
ROBSON:
How much information did Australia provide to Colin Powell and US intelligence for that address?
PRIME MINISTER:
At the request of the Americans we authorised the use of some Australian sourced material. I'm not going to say more than that because I don't in any way want to compromise sources. I mentioned that in my speech to the Parliament on Tuesday but for reasons of long-standing importance concerning intelligence I don't intend to say any more than that.
ROBSON:
Now the polls are saying that the majority of Australians do not want to go to war without UN approval, do you think that might change now in light of that address?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, in the end I make my decisions not based on day-to-day opinion polls. If I did that I wouldn't be serving the country well. Our policy is to...
ROBSON:
So if the US attacks without UN approval will our troops go?
PRIME MINISTER:
Our policy is to work hard to get a second Security Council resolution to authorise force if it is believed that all other avenues to solve this thing peacefully have been exhausted. Nobody wants military conflict. I hate war. War is an abomination. We will do all we can to resolve this issue but, in the end, I do not believe that we can ignore the threat of these sorts of weapons remaining not only in the hands of Iraq but getting into the hands of other rogue states because the more they proliferate the greater the likelihood that these weapons will get into the hands of terrorists and the consequences of that for the world will be quite terrifying. Now, that is the threat we face, that is a direct concern to Australia and that is why we take the strongest possible view that the United Nations must deal with this issue.
ROBSON:
Very briefly, Prime Minister, if the US attacks without UN approval will you engage our troops also?
PRIME MINISTER:
What we have to do is work our way through the UN process and you may not get a black and white result. You may get a grey result. You may get a result where the Security Council doesn't provide explicit authorisation but acknowledges that something's got to be done and until we know the full working out of the process I can't answer that question and it would be irresponsible of me to commit myself in advance until I know what the circumstances are. That would be not in Australia's interests.
ROBSON:
We'll have to leave it there. Thank you very much for your time tonight.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]