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American Morning

Bush Contacting World Leaders by Phone

Aired September 06, 2002 - 07:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We go back to the latest on Iraq. Let's go to the White House for an update.
Kelly Wallace standing by there -- good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

Well, President Bush faces an uphill battle convincing skeptical U.S. allies that Saddam Hussein must go. And at this hour, he is expected to be on the phone, reaching out to French President Chirac, China's President Jiang and Russia's President Putin. These countries, along with the U.S. and Britain, all have veto power on the United Nations Security Council. So far, though, only Britain has voiced support for the U.S. position. The president, in fact, to meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair tomorrow at Camp David.

Next week, the president will make his case to the United Nations. In the meantime, he is taking his message on the road. We saw him in the heartland yesterday, the president saying his message is doing nothing is not an option when it comes to dealing with Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But I firmly believe that the world cannot allow the world's leaders to hold America blackmail, to threaten America, to threaten our peace and threaten our friends and allies with the world's worst weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: The administration still facing some pressure, though, from law makers to provide new information about Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons programs. In response to that, Vice President Cheney and CIA Director George Tenet were on Capitol Hill briefing law makers in secret yesterday.

You also have Congress now planning weeks of hearings when it comes to Iraq and that could put in jeopardy getting passage of a congressional resolution before the November elections, giving support for the president to take any action against Iraq.

The president, Paula, as you know, definitely wants this resolution passed before law makers recess in October. Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, though, says the important thing is getting it right, not getting it done quickly -- Paula.

ZAHN: And what we are hoping, Kelly, is in the next 10, 15 minutes, we're going to get a little more information from Representative Hastert and Gephardt, who got one of those high level briefings yesterday. So we'll be checking in with you, as well.

WALLACE: Good.

ZAHN: Thanks, Kelly. Appreciate it.

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