- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has warned the US
to back away from the possibility of military action against Iran over
its nuclear programme.
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- His comments come a day after President Bush reiterated
that force remained an option but only as a last resort.
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- Iran has resumed what it says is a civilian nuclear research
programme but which the West fears could be used to develop nuclear arms.
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- Germany, France and the UK have led efforts to end the
crisis peacefully.
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- Mr Schroeder's rejection of force came at the official
launch of his party's election campaign.
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- The BBC's Ray Furlong - reporting from Hanover - says
there was an echo of his last election campaign three years ago, when his
steadfast opposition to the use of force against Iraq helped get him re-elected.
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- Applause
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- Mr Schroeder directly challenged Mr Bush's comment that
"all options are on the table" over the Iran crisis.
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- "Let's take the military option off the table. We
have seen it doesn't work," Mr Schroeder told Social Democrats at
the rally in Hanover, to rapturous applause from the crowd.
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- Mr Schroeder said it remained important that Iran did
not gain atomic weapons, and a strong negotiating position was important.
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- "The Europeans and the Americans are united in this
goal," he said. "Up to now we were also united in the way to
pursue this."
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- Mr Schroeder reiterates his views in an interview to
be published Sunday in the German weekly Bild am Sonntag, labelling military
action "extremely dangerous".
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- "This is why I can with certainty exclude any participation
by the German government under my direction," Mr Schroeder tells the
paper.
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- Mr Schroeder was among Europe's sternest critics of the
Iraq war, causing a bitter rift with the US which poisoned relations between
the two countries.
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- His opposition, in tandem with that President Jacques
Chirac's France, led to US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld's stinging
attack on "old Europe".
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- The UN's atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy
Agency, backed a resolution this week expressing "serious concern"
at the resumption of the nuclear programme, and demanding it be halted
again at once.
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- Mr Bush's comments about the military option came in
an interview on Israeli TV.
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- The BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington says the president
wants to send a clear warning to Tehran, although in reality the US already
has its hands full in neighbouring Iraq.
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- Mr Schroeder is lagging well behind his conservative
rivals in the German election campaign, but has been narrowing the gap
in recent days.
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- In the 2002 poll, he came from behind to snatch victory
after anti-Iraq war feeling - and an outbreak of serious flooding in Germany
- helped him attract last-minute support.
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- NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE * Mined uranium ore is purified and
reconstituted into solid form known as yellowcake * Yellowcake is converted
into a gas by heating it to about 64C (147F) * Gas is fed through centrifuges,
where its isotopes separate and process is repeated until uranium is enriched
* Low-level enriched uranium is used for nuclear fuel * Highly enriched
uranium can be used in nuclear weapons
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- © BBC MMV
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4149090.stm
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