IRAQI jet fighters shot down an unmanned American surveillance plane after breaching the country’s southern no-fly zone yesterday in an act of defiance that fuelled the belief that war is almost inevitable.

Oil prices climbed to an almost three-month high after the attack, the first time an American aircraft has been shot down by Iraqi planes inside the no-fly zone. The price of gold, a symbolic refuge in times of war, also went up.

On a day of rising tensions, Washington delivered a stern warning against North Korea exploiting an Iraqi war to pursue its own nuclear weapons programme. Weapons inspectors said they had begun interviewing Iraqi scientists, and Iraq said it was preparing to use foreign volunteers as human shields at strategic sites across the country.

The Predator drone aircraft was on a reconnaissance mission, the Pentagon said. It is the third drone to be lost to hostile fire over Iraq in the past two years, but the first to be downed by Iraqi warplanes.

General Richard Myers, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, played down the incident, calling it a lucky shot. Such overt Iraqi aggression in the face of UN resolutions, suggested that Saddam Hussein has no intention of disarming or co-operating with UN demands.

“With God’s help, and with the will of the men of our heroic air defence forces and brave sky eagles, it (the drone) was shot down in a delicate and planned operation,” an Iraqi military spokesman said. He said the Predator had breached Iraqi airspace after flying from a base in Kuwait.

In Washington Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said the United States was taking “prudent and deliberate” steps to deploy forces to the Gulf region, and was preparing for a “post-Saddam transition”. He made clear his view that weapons inspectors had no chance of tracking down Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. “Inspectors have never been successful in terms of a discovery process,” he said.

Mr Rumsfeld also delivered a blunt warning that North Korea should not attempt to use America’s impending war against Iraq to pursue its own nuclear weapons programme. “We are capable of fighting two major regional foreign conflicts,” he told a Pentagon press conference. “We are capable of winning decisively in one and swiftly defeating in the case of the other. Let there be no doubt about it.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is providing some of the weapons inspectors, said it was beginning one-on-one interviews with Iraqi scientists about their country’s suspected weapons programmes. Mohamed El Baradei, head of the agency, said the UN was also working on practical arrangements to take scientists out of Iraq.

Last month’s UN Security Council resolution allows weapons inspectors to facilitate the travel of those interviewed and their families outside Iraq. But many Iraqis fear retribution by Saddam against relatives left behind. Dr El Baradei said the agency was in “intense” talks with several countries to arrange safe passage for those who need it.

In Baghdad Iraqi officials announced the imminent arrival of European and Arab volunteers who have agreed to act as human shields against any attack on strategic installations. The last time Iraq used volunteers as human shields was in December 1998 during Operation Desert Fox, the US and British bombing campaign after Iraq’s failure to co- operate with UN arms inspectors. During the Gulf War Saddam also used American and British hostages, including children, as human shields.

Baghdad continued to insist that it has no secret wepaons programmes or chemical and biological stockpiles. The White House dismissed an offer made by Iraq on Sunday to allow CIA agents to direct UN arms inspectors to any suspect sites, saying Iraq had no say in the inspections process.

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