Colin Powell, the United States Secretary of State, suggested that a war against Iraq could be launched within three weeks, as he insisted on Sunday that it was "time to take action" against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
With Britain and America due to table a second resolution in the United Nations Security Council on Monday or Tuesday, the office of British Prime Minister Tony Blair said a vote on the text of the resolution would take place in "early to mid-March".
It is expected to say that Iraq is in "material breach" of resolution 1441 and will face "serious consequences" if Saddam does not provide immediate and full co-operation to the UN arms inspectors.
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Powell dropped the clearest hints yet on America's likely timetable, saying the UN needed to take vital decisions quickly, once the weapons inspectors had reported to the Security Council on March 7.
| 'The evidence is clear. They are guilty' |
Speaking in Beijing, where he is to press Chinese leaders against vetoing a second resolution, Powell said: "It is time to take action. The evidence is clear. They are guilty... we are reaching that point where serious consequences must flow."
US and British diplomats spent the weekend trying to persuade reluctant members of the council to vote in favour of the resolution it is poised to table.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan insisted on Monday that weapons inspections in Iraq are making headway and must be allowed to help resolve the crisis.
Annan, in a speech presented by his special representative Lakhdar Brahimi to the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Malaysia, declared war was "not inevitable" and warned that any action not sanctioned by the UN would lack legitimacy.
However, he urged Iraq to disarm for the sake of world order.
"Iraq must disarm. It must co-operate fully and proactively with the inspectors,"Annan told leaders of the 116-nation body, including Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan.
Annan's speech was presented as the US continued its diplomatic push for support for a second UN Security Council resolution on Iraq.
As Powell arrived in China military preparations continued, with US strategic B52 bombers beginning practice runs over the Gulf region.
US President George Bush has warned that the US will go it alone if the UN does not pass a resolution authorising the use of force against Iraq within two months.
The Pentagon has long made clear that it would prefer to launch any strike before April, when temperatures in Iraq begin to soar. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that the 150 000 US troops in the Gulf region were "ample" for the task.
Meanwhile, a senior Iraqi official said last night that Saddam's government has not yet decided whether to comply with a "non-negotiable" demand from the UN's chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, to destroy a powerful new missile system. The official said the order that Iraq eliminate its Al Samoud 2 missiles and 380 illegally-imported rocket engines was "still under deep consideration".
If Iraq fails to destroy the liquid-fuel missiles, it could prompt France and other Security Council members that currently oppose a new council resolution authorising the use of force against Iraq to support such a measure.
The French government has insisted that Iraq comply with the destruction order.
But if Iraq accedes, it would forego one of its newest weapons without a guarantee that it would stave off an increasingly likely US invasion.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of Daily News on February 24, 2003
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