"Everybody who wants peace and stability in the world will respect the world body," he told reporters in Cape Town. "All its members (should) respect the United Nations charter. They don't do anything which might be disturb peace and stability."

President Bush issued a ringing challenge to the world body over Iraq on Thursday, saying if it did not force President Saddam Hussein to disarm and stop backing terrorism then "action will be unavoidable."

In an interview with Newsweek magazine on Monday, Mandela criticized the United States for acting unilaterally and undermining the United Nations as a forum for settling international disputes. He said hardline U.S. policies aimed to please American oil and arms companies.

"If you look at those matters, you will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace," the 84-year-old African statesman said in the interview, which appears on Newsweek's Web Site.

Asked on Thursday if he believed a U.S. attack on Iraq could undermine world peace, the Nobel peace prize laureate said: "Oh most certainly, there is no doubt."

The United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait and imposed U.N. weapons inspectors on the country after the Gulf War. The inspectors left in 1998 ahead of a U.S.-British bombing campaign carried out in the name of forcing greater inspections compliance from Iraq.

PLEASING OIL MAGNATES

Bush and his top aides have accused Iraq of seeking weapons of mass destruction, saying it poses a danger to the Middle East region and the West. Iraq denies the charges.

"It is clearly a decision that is motivated by George W. Bush's desire to please the arms and oil industries in the United States of America," Mandela said in the Newsweek article.

Nearly every country in the world, with the exception of Britain and Israel, has expressed grave misgivings about a pre-emptive attack on Iraq and want prior approval by the 15-nations U.N. Security of any military action.

"On what basis must he (Bush) ignore the considered opinion of world leaders who are members of the United Nations and respect their charter," Mandela said in Cape Town after a 25th anniversary memorial event for slain black activist Steve Biko.

The statesman also warned that if the United States ignored the Security Council it would "introduce chaos in international relations and that must be condemned in the strongest terms."

Mandela championed the fight against white minority rule and emerged from 27 years in apartheid jails to become South Africa's first black president from 1994 to 1999.

During his presidency, Mandela's close ties to Cuba's Fidel Castro and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi irked Washington.

Mandela earlier told Newsweek that while it was not his personal view, others believed there was an element of racism behind Washington's unilateral policies.

"Many people say quietly, but they don't have the courage to stand up and say publicly, that when there were white (U.N.) secretaries-general you didn't find this question of the United States and Britain going out of the United Nations," he said.

"But now that you've had black secretaries-general like...Kofi Annan, they do not respect the United Nations. They have contempt for it," Mandela added.

(China Daily September 13, 2002)