  The World TodayThe World Today Correspondents
ReportCorrespondents Report  More Current Affairs:    You can
also listen to the story in WINDOWS MEDIA format.  NATO split
over defence assistance to Turkey   AM - Tuesday, 11 February ,
2003  00:00:00  Reporter: Michael Brissenden  LINDA MOTTRAM:
First this morning, Saddam Hussein's newest attempt to slip out
of the noose that's tightening around him. Reversing his earlier
position, the Iraqi leader has now accepted, apparently
unconditionally, a demand by the US and by weapons inspectors to
allow U2 surveillance overflights of Iraqi territory.  It's
classic Iraqi brinkmanship - acceding to a key demand at the
very last, as the US appears on the very edge of going to war.
So how will the US react? We'll go to Washington shortly.  But
even as Baghdad tries to avert war, the rift over Iraq between
the US and some of its most important allies, and between those
allies indeed, is widening by the day.  Now the crisis has
seriously struck at NATO.  France, Germany