Iraq begins destroying missiles as Arab League meets on crisis.

(From Agence France Presse)

Iraq began destroying banned missiles in a move dismissed by Washington as a propaganda stunt, as the 22-member Arab League opened a summit with plans to proclaim "total rejection" of any US-led war on the country.

Also Saturday, Turkish lawmakers were to hold a long-awaited vote on whether to allow US forces into Turkey, whose people are overwhelmingly opposed to a US-led war on its southern neighbor.

Iraq began destroying the first four of its stockpile of banned Al-Samoud 2 missiles, found to exceed the agreed range limit of 150 kilometers (93 miles), under UN supervision in Al-Taji, north of Baghdad, on Saturday morning.

Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix had said Friday that the weapons' destruction would be a "very significant piece of disarmament," but the United States and its ally Britain scorned the offer as a predictable last-ditch concession in a long pattern of deceit and called for total disarmament by Iraq.

Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain told The Guardian newspaper: "Of course he (Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein) is going to throw out concessions the whole time, the nearer military action gets. ... That is what he has played for 12 years" since the 1991 Gulf War.

The United States and Britain have together massed more than 225,000 troops in the Gulf for a possible war to rid Iraq of its alleged arsenal of banned weapons.