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South African President Thabo Mbeki is to hold bilateral talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Feb. 1 in the United Kingdom as part of the efforts to avert war in Iraq, the South African Press Association reported on Sunday.
South Africa's Department of Foreign Affairs was quoted in a statement as saying that Mbeki would stress, as he did in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last year, that multilateralism was the only response to the issue.
"President Mbeki will meet with Prime Minister Blair in the context of worldwide efforts to avert a war with Iraq," the department said.
The United States, backed by Britain, is threatening an attack on the Middle East country over Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction.
UN weapons inspectors are to deliver a much-anticipated report on their search for chemical and biological weapons in Iraq to the UN Security Council on Monday.
Mbeki called, in his weekly letter in the African National Congress' on-line newsletter on Friday, for a peaceful resolution to the crisis through the United Nations.
"Our movement (the ANC) is keenly interested that the objective of the destruction of any weapons of mass destruction that Iraq might have should be achieved.
"We are also firmly of the belief that Iraq should respect and implement the decisions of the Security Council, including the latest resolution of the Council (for Iraq to disarm).
"At the same time, we are convinced that these results can, and should, be achieved by peaceful means," he said.
The statement also said Mbeki would travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from Feb. 2 to 4 to attend an extraordinary heads of state summit of the African Union.
He would be accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
The summit would consider recommendations of the AU council of ministers, chaired by Dlamini-Zuma, regarding proposed amendments to the Constitutive Act of the AU, including Libya's proposal for the AU to form one country with a single army.
(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2003)
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