THE US: United States is expected to amend its draft United Nations Security Council resolution on Iraq to give Baghdad more time to prepare a list of its weapons facilities and to drop its insistence on Iraqi scientists giving evidence to inspectors outside Iraq.
This follows a meeting yesterday in the White House between President Bush and the chief UN weapons inspector, Dr Hans Blix.
The US text circulated to the 15-member Security Council calls for Iraq to submit to the inspectors within 30 days an "accurate, full and complete declaration of all aspects of its programmes to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons" and other armaments.
Dr Blix, accompanied by International Atomic Energy Agency Director Mohamed El Baradei, said more time should be given Baghdad to complete this task.
Mr Bush is also believed to be ready to drop his demand that Iraqi officials and their families be taken out of Iraq for interview, something which most UN members say would be a breach of Iraqi sovereignty.
A US officials was quoted as saying the resolution would approve such interviews but not insist on them.
Dr Blix said after the meeting that the US expects a resolution on new weapons inspections will be adopted soon, though a vote is not now expected until next week.
Mr Bush told them the US "wanted to pursue a peaceful path, hoping that the Iraqis will co-operate" and to assure them the US "was fully behind the inspection effort," Dr Blix told reporters on return to United Nations headquarters in New York.
Dr Blix, who has backed the American drive for a tougher inspections regime, said he would expect to be able to put a team back in Iraq within 10 days of getting the green light.
"I think there is a very strong opinion in the General Assembly that they would not tolerate any cat-and-mouse game again and we would also report anything that we would perceive as cat-and-mouse game," he said.
He also stated that there should be consequences if Iraq did not abide by any resolution, language which the US has been promoting to justify military action in the event of a material breach of a new resolution.
The UN Security Council met yesterday for three hours to discuss the US text as diplomats wrestled with the question now at the heart of the debate - who would decide that there was a future material breach of United Nations resolutions.
If left to individual council members, it could mean the US starting a war on any report of material breach without further sanction from the Security Council.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, stressed yesterday that any resolution must warn Iraq of consequences if it refused to agree to destroy its weapons arsenals. "Otherwise," Mr Powell told reporters, "Iraq will try to deceive and distract" the UN weapons inspectors.
"We cannot accept any language that suggests that in the presence of new Iraqi violations, those violations would be ignored and there would be no consequences," he said.
Mr Powell also warned again that if the Security Council did not act, Mr Bush "has what he believes is the authority needed and frankly, the obligation, to act with like-minded nations to disarm Iraq".
The Secretary of State said he expected an end of the United Nations debate on the form of an Iraq resolution by the end of next week.
At the UN, Russia's head of mission, Mr Sergey Lavrov, said Russia did not want the use of force to be automatic "and this is still our position".