"The only option (to avoid war) is the departure of the number one warmonger in the world," Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said, apparently referring to Bush.

Sabri's statement was echoed by Iraqi Information Minister Mohamed Sa'eed Alsahaf, who vowed that Saddam will stay in the country despite the US threat of war.

"Bush will leave, the infidel (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair will leave, but President Saddam will stand as a towering mountain," he told the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television in an interview.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2003)