LONDON/WASHINGTON, 4 August 2003 — The United States has warned Niger to keep out of a row over disputed claims that Iraq sought to buy uranium from the west African state, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Quoting senior Niger government officials, the British newspaper said Herman Cohen, a former US assistant secretary of state for Africa, called on Mamadou Tandja, Niger’s president, in the capital Niamey last week to relay the message from Washington.

One official told the Telegraph: “Let’s say Mr. Cohen put a friendly arm around the president... but then squeezed his shoulder hard enough to convey the message, ‘Let’s hear no more about this affair from your government’. Basically he was telling Niger to shut up.”

The American intervention reflects growing concern about the continuing row over claims that the US and Britain distorted evidence to justify the war against Iraq launched in March, according to the right-wing British weekly.

The Telegraph recalled that Hama Hamadou, Niger’s prime minister, last week told it that the Niger government had never had discussions with Iraq about uranium, and called on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to produce the “evidence” he claims to have to confirm that Iraq sought uranium from Niger.

US officials denied that there had been any attempt to “gag” the Niger government, the Telegraph said. But the Niger official said that Washington’s warning was likely to be heeded.

“Mr. Cohen did not spell it out but everybody in Niger knows what the consequences of upsetting America or Britain would be. We are the world’s second-poorest country and we depend on international aid to survive.”

On a visit to Washington last month, Blair maintained the accuracy of British intelligence on Iraq’s alleged purchase of nuclear material from Niger, saying “we know for sure” that it bought 270 tons of the material from the African country in the 1980s.

Iraq’s attempt to procure nuclear material from Niger has become the focus of a political furor in both the US and Britain after the Central Intelligence Agency publicly acknowledged the allegation should never have been in US President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address in January.

That link was cited as one justification for the US-British invasion of Iraq.

Cohen’s intervention in Niger suggested that Washington was keen to draw a line under the “uranium from Africa” affair, the Telegraph said, but added it had also learned that senior US soldiers were in Iraq last week to investigate movements of Niger’s uranium.

Meanwhile, the White House, under pressure to broaden the international presence in Iraq, said late Saturday the current UN resolutions provide enough authority for other countries to contribute to reconstrution and stabilization efforts.

Spokesman Scott McClellan was cool to the idea of seeking a new Security Council mandate authorizing wider participation.

The Bush administration believes Resolution 1483, which states that there is a legal basis for the United Nations, international financial institutions and other countries to participate in post-war reconstruction, is enough. “Resolution 1483 we believe provides sufficient authority for countries to participate and help with reconstruction and stabilization in Iraq,” McClellan said.

“There have been some countries that have expressed concerns that they feel they may need some additional authority.” McClellan, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Texas with President George W. Bush, said there had been “some preliminary discussions” with those countries.

But he repeated: “We believe that 1483 provides sufficient authority for countries to participate, as a number are currently doing.”

US senators from both the Democratic and Republican parties have pressed the Bush administration for information on its efforts to get more international help in Iraq to relieve the financial and military burdens on Washington. The cost of maintaining US troops in Iraq has been put at about $4 billion a month.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week he would welcome an official UN role in providing peacekeeping forces. But he said, “Speed is of the essence here and the UN isn’t always speedy.”

Although he said he was open to a second resolution that would make it easier for other countries to contribute peacekeeping troops, he expressed concern about the possibility that it might “put limitations” on what the United States could do in Iraq.

Resolution 1483, passed in May, effectively gave the United States control over the economic and political processes in Iraq until a new government is seated in Baghdad.