As United Nations diplomats continue the work towards wording a resolution over weapons inspectors to Iraq, there are signs opposition to an attack are weakening.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell, considered a moderate in the US administration, today resumed talks with members of the UN Security Council seeking quick action against Iraq and hoping for a vote by the end of the week.
After receiving a boost from Saudi Arabia, whose Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal offered the use of Saudi airbases for UN-mandated action, Australian Defence Minister Mr Robert Hill and British Opposition leader Mr Iain Duncan Smith both weighed in behind the President Bush's assertion that inaction on Iraq is not an option.
Mr Duncan Smith today said his party would abstain from any vote pushed by Labour backbench rebels threatening to vote against the government when parliament is recalled to debate action on Iraq.
And the growing resolve had been reflected by the British public in a an opinion poll published tonight.
A Guardian/ICM poll shows there is no longer a majority opposing an attack to remove Saddam Hussein.
A previous survey showed opposition at 50 per cent with only 33 per cent in favour - a gap of 17 per cent - but this has dropped to 40 per cent now compared to 36 per cent in favour.
The number of "don't knows" has risen from 17 per cent to 24 per cent*.
Meanwhile, Australia's defence minister told the Canberra parliament that his government might agree to join a US-led war on Iraq even without UN approval. "Actions are sometimes legitimate without an authority of the Security Council," Mr Hill said.
He was speaking after Foreign Minister Mr Alexander Downer met his Iraqi counterpart at UN headquarters in New York and said he had heard nothing to indicate Baghdad intended to obey UN demands it open its doors to international weapons inspectors.
But international efforts at mediation independent of government continue with Iraq hosting public representatives from France, the US and Britain.
US Congressman Mr Nick Rahall wrapped up a three-day peace mission today saying he had "positive" talks with senior officials.
He was among a delegation of American activists who held talks with Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, parliament speaker Saadun Hammadi and Health Minister Omid Medhat Mubarak.
Mr Rahall, a Democrat from West Virginia, who had US government approval for his visit, told the Iraqi parliament yesterday that "the way to avoid war and to secure peace is to allow UN inspectors into Iraq.
"The matter is urgent, and I therefore urge your government to implement all relevant Security Council resolutions without delay," he said.
"Our delegation does not want to see a new war in Iraq. I will encourage my colleagues in the Congress to enter into dialogue with the Iraq National Assembly for the future benefit of both our nations."
Mr Norman Solomon, head of the Institute for Public Accuracy, who was a member of Mr Rahall's delegation, said the feeling in Baghdad was a gloomy assumption that war with the United States was inevitable.
"Iraqi government officials feel that the US policy is to shove them up against the wall. In a sense the United States has already made clear its desire to go to war," said Mr Solomon.
He said Iraqi foreign Minister Mr Tariq Aziz felt that Baghdad "was doomed if they do, doomed if they don't".
"If they allow unfettered inspections, it won't change US determination to see a regime change any more than if they don't allow inspections," Mr Solomon said.
A visit by three French members of parliament to Iraq was roundly criticised at home. The deputies from President Jacques Chirac's centre-right Union for a Presidential Majority (UMP) party, visited what was formerly Iraq's main nuclear power plant yesterday. The Iraqi News Agency quoted their leader, Mr Thierry Mariani, as saying they found no evidence that Iraq is developing weapons of mass destruction.
But Mr Raffarin said: "We disapprove of this mission, which is not in line with France's position at a particularly difficult moment in international relations."
Mr Didier Julia and Mr Eric Diard were the other French members of the delegation.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA ) has joined the call for weapons inspections to resume in Iraq.
IAEA director general Mr Mohamed El-Baradei said information from satellite photographs showed Iraq may have been preparing to receive equipment to be used in its weapons program.
"But this information by itself cannot lead us to any conclusion without an inspection," he told a news conference as the annual meeting of the UN agency got underway in Vienna.
"That is why I keep insisting that for Iraq to clear itself it needs to accept inspection. We need to go back," he said.
Mr El-Baradei said when the IAEA carried out its last inspection in December 1998 as part of the UN-mandated disarmament program, there was no sign that Saddam's regime had built a nuclear weapon.
"There was no indication of Iraq having achieved its goal of producing a nuclear weapon, nor were there any indications that there remained in Iraq any physical capability for the production of amounts of weapon usable material of any practical significance.
"Since that time however the agency has been unable to draw any conclusion or provide any assurance regarding Iraq's compliance with its obligations under the Security Council resolutions," he added.
The call comes as a top dissident Iraqi nuclear scientist said Baghdad could produce nuclear bombs within three months with outside help.
Mr Khidir Hamza, who helped launch Iraq's nuclear bomb programme before he defected in 1994, was quoted in the British newpaper The Times saying Saddam Hussein's regime could build the weapons by the end of the year using pirated German equipment and uranium smuggled from Brazil.
"Unless he is stopped soon, Saddam will have set up a whole nuclear bomb industry, not just have made a couple of bombs," Mr Hamza said.
* Just over 1,000 people were interviewed by telephone between September 13 and 15th. AFP