By Subhy Haddad BBC Arabic Service

Many Iraqis feel now that war is inevitable

But there are others who are cautiously optimistic about a possible peaceful solution to the crisis with the US and Britain over Iraq's so-called weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Iraqi citizen Ahmed Jassim, 41, believes that US President George W Bush "is after Iraq's rich oil resources and not disarmament".

Mr Jassim, who is a high school teacher and a father of four children, said: "Iraq is completely complying with UN resolutions, particularly after starting destruction of its al-Samoud II surface-to-surface missiles as asked for by UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix.

"By this painful step, Iraq proved its genuine compliance to UN relevant disarmament resolutions.

"What more do they want from a country languishing under 12-year-old crippling international sanctions," he added angrily.

"It's the duty of all fair-minded UN Security Council members to stop US-UK war plans against my country because my innocent people, including my kids, would be the victims of such [an] inhumane and dirty war."

'Blatant pressure'

Iraqi university student Khalida Majeed adds her voice to those of her compatriots, urging Mr Blix to show professionalism and neutrality in his pending report to the UN Security Council.

This, she believes, will disprove groundless fabrications by the US and UK against Iraq.

Iraqis are sceptical of the younger Bush's motives

"Would Mr Blix prove he is a man of principle and stand firm to the ever-mounting and blatant pressure by the US and UK to make him vilify Iraq in his report?" she asked.

Miss Majeed, a 20-year-old student of political science at Baghdad University, praised the Turkish parliament for refusing last Saturday to grant a Turkish Government motion permitting US troops on Turkish soil for use in a possible war against Iraq.

The beautiful student, with a wide and sweet smile covering her rosy face, expresses hope that Turkish parliament would hold fast and not give in to US pressure and bribes.

Like father, like son

However, grim-faced carpenter Abdul-Jabbar Abbass, 35-years-old, has another view.

"Whatever Iraq does war is almost unavoidable" he says.

"This is because the decision of war is in the hands of one man... Mr Bush Jnr, whose father Mr Bush Snr is the... force standing in the backstage.

"And as everybody knows, the father is not interested in peace, but in finishing his 1991 unfinished business in Iraq."

This was a reference to the 1991 Gulf War, in which "Bush the Father", US president between 1988 and 1992, led an international alliance to drive the Iraqi army out of Kuwait.

This had followed a seven-month occupation ordered by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on August 2, 1990.

But although the former US president succeeded in driving the Iraqi army out of the small oil rich gulf sheikdom he then stopped, for reasons unclear, from ordering his troops to proceed to Baghdad to carry out a regime change.