IN SUIT and tie rather than his trademark military uniform, Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, flew into Rome yesterday amid a deepening rift between Washington and the Vatican.

His five-day visit to Rome and Assisi has infuriated the Bush Administration and worsened the United States’s strained relations with Europe.

The Bush Administration has complained vigorously to the Vatican that the Pope, who receives Mr Aziz today, has sent an envoy to Baghdad but not to the US. America has sent a conservative Catholic scholar, Michael Novak, to persuade the Vatican that it was pursuing a “just” war.

Vatican officials point out that Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, did not find time to call on the Pope when in Rome last week for talks with Signor Berlusconi. The Vatican has considered sending Cardinal Pio Laghi, a former ambassador to Washington, as an emissary to the US, but instead the Pope sent Cardinal Roger Etchegaray to Baghdad. He is due to meet Saddam Hussain tomorrow.

Mr Aziz said that the US’s real intentions were “oil and domination” and praised the Vatican for “doing their best to stop this aggression”. He said that the US had “made up its mind to attack whatever concessions Iraq makes” and that, consequently, he would not invite the Pope to visit Baghdad because“we cannot guarantee his security”.

Later he said that UN weapons inspectors would be able to prove Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction if given enough time.

On the eve of the UN Security Council briefing by Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, Mr Aziz dismissed charges that Iraq’s al-Samoud 2 missile is in breach of UN resolutions.

“The main problem is that Iraqi missiles of a short range do not have a guidance system, and when a missile does not have a guidance system it can go five, ten or fifteen kilometres beyond target,” he said. “That is not very dangerous and must not be exaggerated.”

At the Italian Parliament Mr Aziz met leaders of the Centre Left Opposition. Despite his strident criticisms of the Berlusconi Government for its support of Mr Bush’s policies on Iraq, many on the Right were also keen to “share the TV limelight”. Franco Frattini, the Foreign Minister, said that he would meet Mr Aziz today, but would “firmly insist that Iraq disarm immediately, totally, and effectively”.

Roberto Formigoni, the Centre Right President of Lombardy and an “old acquaintance” of Mr Aziz, claimed after meeting him that there was “still a chance for peace”.

Mr Aziz added that he would put his uniform back on and fight if war broke out. Asked if Iraq would use “non-conventional weapons”, he replied: “We don’t have weapons of that kind, consequently we cannot use them. We had them in 1991, but did not use them then.” Iraq was “merely the first to pay the price of the new post Cold War American arrogance”.

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