UN weapons inspectors are expected to deal a blow to the Bush administration on Monday by reporting a relatively high level of co-operation from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the search for weapons of mass destruction.
Combined with growing world-wide protests against immediate war with Iraq, this may persuade the US administration to at least weigh the option of extending UN weapons inspections for a number of weeks, according to reports from Washington.
A decision will be based on whether the inspections are productive, a senior US official said. The US would also consider any new evidence provided by chief weapons inspector Dr Hans Blix and Dr Muhammad ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in their report on Monday to the UN Security Council.
Dr ElBaradei will tell the council that the inspectors need at least several more months to do their work, his spokesman Mr Mark Gwozdecky said yesterday. He will also say that his inspectors have got generally good co-operation from the Iraqis in their hunt for weapons of mass destruction.
The Iraqis "need to help themselves" by pointing the experts in the right direction, Mr Gwozdecky said, but "their report card will be a 'B' - quite satisfactory". The United States still showed every sign of preparing for war, however.
The US State Department warned embassies abroad to be prepared to evacuate American citizens and advised US citizens to leave Iraq.
White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said President Bush considered the failure of Iraq to make its scientists fully available to UN inspectors "unacceptable". Saddam Hussein's conduct will make "the end of the line come even closer", he said.
On Thursday US Deputy Defence Secretary Mr Paul Wolfowitz said: "We know from multiple sources that Saddam has ordered that any scientists who co-operate during interviews will be killed, as well as their families."
Despite being taken aback by furious world opposition to war, US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell made clear last night that any extension of work by the inspections would be for weeks, rather than months. In an interview in today's Financial Times, Mr Powell expressed frustration at European calls for weapons inspectors to be given more months.
"I have yet to hear from any of my European colleagues as to when they would be satisfied with respect to inspections," he said.
A lengthy extension could mean UN staff "merely chasing around the countryside looking for things", he added.
The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that British Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw discussed with Mr Powell giving the inspectors a short period of extra time.
Mr Powell said however: "What will we know in two or three months' time in the face of Iraqi non co-operation, which you most likely will not get?" The Bush administration's confrontation with Iraq will come to a head next week.
After the inspectors report on Monday on 90 days of work in Iraq, the US President will give his State of the Nation Address on Tuesday, during which he is expected to prepare the American public for war.
Next day, Mr Bush will meet his closest European ally, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, at Camp David to prepare a road map for future action, while the Security Council is debating the inspectors' report. Mr Powell will make the US case at the Davos economic summit in Switzerland today, where the US has found itself very much on the defensive.
France, Germany and Russia have urged that the inspectors be given more time and any attack on Iraq be deferred. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany said yesterday there was "growing support" in Europe for Germany's opposition to war in Iraq.