By Wendy S. Ross
Washington File White House Correspondent

Washington -- The United States government is continuing to review the 12,000 page weapons declaration that Iraq's Saddam Hussein regime presented to the United Nations Security Council early in December, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters December 16.

President Bush "did not put any type of artificial deadline on the amount of time it would take to do this thoughtfully and deliberatively," Fleischer explained. "The President's approach and the President's instructions were to do this in a way that would be deliberative, that would be full, that would be thoughtful.

"This is very important. This declaration that Iraq has filed can be the difference between war and peace. And the President thinks that it is vital to take a look at it in its entirety and to do so thoughtfully and deliberatively.

"And once the review is complete, then to share the United States' thoughts with the other nations in the world, to share it with the Security Council; to listen respectfully to the opinions of our friends and our allies and others on the Security Council about this matter, and to proceed, in due course, from there. And that's the approach that the President has taken," Fleischer said.

"Other nations will also be weighing in on their views of what Iraq has provided," the Press Secretary said, as will chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix.

"And this is all appropriately so. Under the terms of the Resolution 1441, which sent the inspectors back into Iraq, the declaration Iraq prepared was for the use of the members of the United Nations Security Council, and they will all be making their thoughts known shortly," Fleischer said.

Part of the review of the declaration, he said, is "to see what is not in it and to match it up against previous declarations, particularly the UNSCOM (United Nations Special Commission) report in 1999," when the inspectors did a final reporting on what they knew at the time Iraq ordered them to leave the country.

"It will shed some light on whether Iraq is telling the truth or not, to see what Iraq has said in this declaration and compare it to their past promises for what they have indeed destroyed," Fleischer said.

Asked if the White House is still confident that Iraqi scientists will be interviewed outside of the country, and whether Blix is cooperating with that effort, Fleischer responded:

"We continue to have fruitful conversations with the United Nations about the full implementation of Resolution 1441. That is an important part of Resolution 1441, as passed unanimously by all members of the Security Council. The reason the United States feels so strongly about this is because this often is the best way to find out what Iraq is really up to. There are people inside Iraq who are dedicated to peace, who would like to talk, who have knowledge that they would like to share; and it is in the interest of the world to hear their facts. ... We expect that the resolution will be implemented in full."

In another development, asked about the conference of Iraqi dissidents taking place in London, Fleischer said the United States has sent "a very clear message to people in this conference as well as to people around the world, and that is that we support a democratically oriented Iraq, an Iraq that is whole," with borders that remain intact.

Legislation passed by the U.S. Congress several years before called for regime change in Iraq, and for the United States to work closely with the Iraqi groups that are dedicated to a different type of leadership in Iraq than the Saddam Hussein regime, Fleischer noted.

"And we look forward to working with Iraqis both inside and outside the government to make this reality," Fleischer said.

A "democratically inclined," leadership, he said, "means a leadership that is respectful of the will of the people."