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Human disaster hangs over as war deadline draws near

STAR DESK
As the US ultimatum for Saddam Hussein to go into exile ends this morning, Iraq crisis is unfolding into a major humanitarian disaster with panic-stricken people fleeing across the border.
More than a quarter million US-led invasion force has moved into positions to make the first strike on Basra "within a couple of days" and troops rolled into the Iraq-Kuwait dimilitarised zone.
Iraqi legislators vowed to sacrifice their blood and soul for Saddam. "We pledge to you that we will follow the path of heroism and martyrdom and we will all be martyrs defending Iraq," parliament said in a letter to Saddam after an emergency session.
British and US aircraft bombarded parts of Iraq with leaflets, urging Iraqi soldiers to refrain from using "weapons of mass destruction" or torching oil wells and advising them to lay down their weapons rather than die for a "lost cause".
"I think its very likely that within a couple of days jets are going to be going off the front of the USS Abraham Lincoln," Vice Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, told his troops.
"If we go, the plans that we have are unlike anything anyone has ever seen before," Keating told reporters.
"We can achieve surprise by going about this particular conflict, if we do it, in a way that is very unpredictable and unprecedented in history -- remarkable speed, breathtaking speed, agility, precision and persistence," he said.
Also with speed are the panicky Iraqis and Kurds in northern Iraq trying to get out before the war machines shower bombs, numbers which could squall in hundreds of thousands over the next few days.
Hunger is now a huge concern as most Iraqis are living off government food ration. One in four Iraqi children is already chronically malnourished and if the supply chain breaks down, it could be catastrophic.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugee's (UNHCR) quickness to cope with the crisis along the border seems too inadequate if waves of refugees roll across.
In the short term, food would be urgently needed to feed some 10 million people. In the worst case, Iraq could face widespread starvation and epidemics, a UN aid official in charge of Iraq said.
Away in Baghdad, sandbags sprouted on football fields and roundabouts overnight as the war suddenly became a reality.
After months of wait and worry, the prospect of imminent attack was here, all too suddenly, and horribly real.
Demand for fuel, food and medicines is huge with car queues in front of stores and filling stations stretching longer in probably the last full day of peace.
US Army Vice Chief of Staff General John Keane has indicated that an opening air attack could be
followed very quickly by troops on the ground.
Convoys of US troops in tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks have been moving across the Kuwaiti desert towards the Iraqi border.
As fierce sandstorms blow, US commanders have said the weather could play a role in the timing of any attack. Desert storms can affect delicate equipment.
President George W Bush, accusing Saddam of hiding chemical and biological weapons, has given him until 4:15 am Iraqi time (0115 GMT) today to go into exile with his sons.
Bush and his main ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have amassed 280,000 troops in the region to kill or capture Saddam and overthrow his government in an enterprise that has created deep diplomatic schisms across the world.
In the financial markets, most stocks fell as investors fretting about the length and aftermath of a war sought safety.
Gold, a safe haven in times of trouble, and bonds rose. After falling on hope of a quick war, oil prices rose slightly. The US dollar held steady.
US officials promise an aerial bombardment of such precision and intensity that it would isolate Saddam and his leadership and stun the Iraqi army into submission.
They say upward of 3,000 satellite-guided bombs and cruise missiles will be unleashed from sea and air on targets vital to Saddam's government in a "shock and awe" start to the war.
Ground forces are expected to move in during or after a short, intense aerial bombardment to secure Iraq's oil fields and prevent Saddam loyalists torching wells as they did in Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War.
Vowing regime change, Bush says Iraq could provide groups like al Qaeda with weapons that would exceed the bloodshed caused by the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities.
Turkey will put a motion to parliament today allowing for the overflight of US aircraft to Iraq. If approved, this could help US forces open a northern front.
France and Germany have led opposition to war and question US assertions about Iraq's weapons arsenal. China and Russia made last minute appeals for peace on Tuesday.
France, Russia and Germany are expected to use a Wednesday UN meeting with chief arms inspector Hans Blix as a forum to denounce the war. Blix's inspectors have pulled out of Iraq.
Bush and Blair face opposition to war at home. The British leader won parliamentary backing on Tuesday for war, but suffered the
biggest party revolt in living memory.
Washington said about 45 countries -- privately or publicly -supported its intention to oust Saddam by force. The United States, Britain and Australia alone are providing combat troops.
South Korea, locked in a standoff with North Korea over the communist state's nuclear ambitions, said on Wednesday it backed the US on Iraq and said it might contribute non-combat troops.
As the clock ticked, Saudi Arabia threw its weight behind the idea of exile for the Iraqi leader and his family for the first time to avert a war. It did not offer to take him itself.
Egypt, an opponent of a war, accused Iraq of putting a volatile region in danger.
"We are facing today exceptional circumstances which put on our shoulders major responsibilities to save the security and stability of the Arab region," President Hosni Mubarak told Egyptians in a televised address.