The United Nations Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, is expected to fly to Baghdad this week - possibly on Wednesday - for a face-to-face meeting with President Saddam Hussein in an attempt to avert military strikes against Iraq by the United States and Britain.
Meanwhile, Baghdad warned yesterday that any US military strike against the country could destroy UN weapons monitoring equipment and hinder disarmament efforts.
Gen Amer al-Saadi, an adviser to the Iraqi President, said that Iraq would make no attempt to tamper with the equipment of the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) charged with Iraqi disarmament.
The US and Britain have threatened to use substantial military force to make Iraq give UNSCOM inspectors unfettered and unconditional access to suspect weapons sites. As the two governments stepped up their campaign to prepare public opinion for military action - and the US sent more stealth bombers to the Gulf - Mr Annan was preparing to meet representatives today of all five permanent members of the UN Security Council where a majority are opposed to an attack on Iraq.
Russia, China, and France oppose the use of force - a position they repeated yesterday - though British officials insist the five are united in the aim to rid Iraq of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
President Clinton's National Security Adviser, Mr Sandy Berger, said a military strike against Iraq was not measured in days but "it's also not measured in months". He added: "The one constant he [Saddam Hussein] must understand is that the international community is not going to go away - and what's most important is - the United States is not going to go away."
In advance of tomorrow's House of Commons debate on Iraq, the British Defence Secretary, Mr George Robertson, strove to counter widespread scepticism - shared by Gen Norman Schwarzkopf and Sir Peter de la Billiere, the US and British commanders in the Gulf War - that military force will achieve the stated objectives.
Mr Robertson condemned as "disgraceful and irresponsible" claims that British defence chiefs were not fully behind the US and British strategy against what he called "the evil dictator".
Mr Robertson told Sky News that there could be room for movement on the numbers and nationality of UN weapons inspectors. "We can look at the possibility of recruiting new inspectors, other inspectors from other countries, if that is going to be acceptable," he said.
A team of UN technicians, led by Mr Staffan de Mistura, of Sweden, and including two Austrian surveyors, arrived in Baghdad yesterday to inspect the eight disputed sites which, Iraq says, are situated in the governorates of Baghdad, Salahuddin, Basra and Nineveh.
Security around Saddam reaches `paranoid' proportions; US plays down differences with China; Robertson tells Iraq that time is running out; FBI investigated CIA- backed plot to kill Saddam: page 15; Editorial comment: page 17