US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage today President George W. Bush was willing to be patient with Iraq but that Baghdad would be disarmed eventually if it did not disarm itself.
"I think I made it clear that President Bush has patience," Mr Armitage said. "He would much prefer to have Iraq disarm herself.
"But, as the president said, 'If Iraq won't disarm, then eventually, Iraq will be disarmed'," he said.
Mr Armitage, in Tokyo at the start of a four-nation Asian tour, said he had not conveyed to Japanese officials any decision by Mr Bush to attack Iraq if Baghdad failed to disarm.
"President Bush has made no such determination as yet. We, and hopefully the international community, will keep the pressure on," he said. "We believe that's the best opportunity we have to get Saddam Hussein to disarm."
Mr Armitage's trip, which will also take him to Seoul, Beijing and Canberra, comes as United Nations experts begin to scrutinise a massive arms dossier submitted by Iraq on Saturday.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei made it clear today that he believed patience would indeed be needed.
Asked in Tokyo about reports the inspection process could take up to a year, he said: "I think that's accurate."
"An inspection is not just something where you flip a coin and say 'yes they are in compliance' or 'no, they are not in compliance'," said ElBaradei, in Tokyo for an IAEA meeting.
Baghdad says the dossier proves it has no weapons of mass destruction. But even before the declaration was turned over by Iraq, Washington insisted it had evidence that Iraq had retained or accelerated arms programmes over the past four years.