Egyptian foreign minister calls for Saddam Hussein to quit office

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa has called for the resignation of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in a statement Moussa made to the German daily "The Berliner Kurier."

AFP quoted Moussa as saying that Iraq is a rich country which has become very poor under the regime of Saddam Hussein. "Thereby, we see that he (Saddam) will be no more able to shoulder the responsibility of his country's policy and that a big pressure from the inside and a similar one from the outside would lead to explosions in Iraq, in need of a new leadership."

Moussa added that apart from the fact that Saddam Hussein's policy is in particular harmful for the Arab cause, "the Iraqi people are continuously suffering."