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BAGHDAD, Sunday (AFP)

As US and British warplanes continued to pound southern Iraqi targets Baghdad accused US President George W. Bush of using lies and deceit to garner NATO support for a military incursion.

The planes carried out raids "against civilian installations in the province of Misan," the official Iraqi News Service quoted a military spokesman as saying.

The US Central Command confirmed that warplanes of the US-British coalition hit a mobile radar system in southern Iraq as they patrolled a no-fly zone established by the allies over the region in the aftermath of the Gulf War.

The strike, in which the aircraft used precision-guided weapons, occurred south of the Iraqi city of Al Amarah, approximately 264 kilometers (165 miles) southeast of Baghdad, at about 6:00 am (1100 GMT), the command said.

"Today's strike came after Iraq moved the mobile radar into the southern no-fly zone," the statement pointed out. "The radar provides tracking and guidance for surface-to-air missile systems that can target coalition aircraft."

Iraq accused Bush of trying to lure his NATO allies into war as the US leader rounded off visits to future NATO countries in Europe with a new condemnation of the Iraqi regime.

"Little Bush went to the NATO summit in Prague, carrying lies and his aggressive policies toward Iraq," said the Iraqi government newspaper al-Jumhuriya as Baghdad prepared for next week's launch of the first UN arms inspections in four years.

"Bush is using deceit in order to incite NATO countries against Iraq and render himself the guardian of security and peace in the world," said the daily.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, in a veiled warning to Washington not to go it alone, said the world could not rid itself of terrorism just by forcing a regime change in Baghdad.

"The international community must understand that it will not settle the problem of terrorism simply by settling the problem of Iraq," Ivanov said after a meeting in Moscow with the diplomatic chiefs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which groups Russia, China and four former Soviet republics in Central Asia.

And the Bush administration gave its clearest indication to date it might consent to Saddam Hussein staying in power, if the Iraqi leader agreed to give up its suspected arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

The United States continues to insist that regime change in Iraq remains its official policy.

But US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told CNN Iraq's verifiable disarmament -- without Saddam leaving office -- could be a solution to the current standoff.

"The reason the president decided to go into the United Nations and accept the reality that inspections might not work, was that he concluded that war is the last choice, not the first choice," Rumsfeld said.

"It might be that (Saddam) would change his mind and open his country up and say, 'Well, I'd rather stay in power; then I'm willing to give up my weapons of mass destruction,'" he said.

On Saturday, Bush visited future NATO partners, telling nations who had been under Nazi and Communist occupation that they will help the alliance defeat the "new enemies of freedom": Iraq and terrorists.

"By his search for terrible weapons, by his ties to terror groups, by his development of prohibited ballistic missiles, the dictator of Iraq threatens the freedom of every free nation, including the free nations of Europe," Bush told tens of thousands of Romanians in Bucharest.

"The United Nations Security Council and now NATO have now spoken with one voice: The Iraqi regime will completely disarm itself of weapons of mass murder, or we, the United States, will lead a coalition of willing nations and disarm that regime," Bush declared, two days after NATO demanded Iraqi President Saddam Hussein disarm.

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