The spectre of war in the Gulf looms large today as the first public pronouncement by US President George W. Bush on Iraq's declaration on weapons of mass destruction is anxiously awaited.
Mr Bush is expected to comment on Iraq's declaration later today during a meeting with UN, Russian and European Union diplomats.
Last night, US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell declared Iraq in "material breach" of UN Resolution 1441 by failing to disclose its weapons of mass destruction. The resolution threatens Baghdad with "serious consequences" if it fails to comply with UN disarmament demands.
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US Secretary of State Colin Powell
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But no other country, including Britain, joined Washington in declaring a material breach, a legal term that could be used by the US to launch a war against President Saddam Hussein.
Iraq immediately rejected the charges as baseless and urged the UN to stand up to US and British "lies and deceit against the people of Iraq and its leadership".
Mr Powell said the next few weeks would be crucial in judging Iraq's compliance with the resolution. He said if Baghdad continued its uncooperative behaviour "we're not going to find a peaceful solution to this problem."
A material breach was first declared by Washington's UN ambassador, Mr John Negroponte, to the Security Council yesterday in an assessment of the arms declaration Iraq had to submit under the new resolution. He said Iraq was lying when it reported that it had no "ongoing weapons of mass destruction programmes."
Chief UN weapons inspector Mr Hans Blix also told the council in his initial report that Iraq's 12,000-page declaration, submitted on December 7th, did not include data on some chemical and biological agents, such as anthrax, that inspectors wanted clarified.
Iraq has been called to account for vast quantities of chemical and biological weapons material uncovered by inspectors before their expulsion in 1998.
"An opportunity was missed in the declaration to give a lot of evidence," Mr Blix said. But he said he had no evidence to prove Iraq still had weapons of mass destruction and challenged countries, particularly the US, to back up their charges. However, he also accused the US and British governments of not providing enough intelligence to help his team search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The London Timesreported that Britain would seek the UN's explicit approval for war on Iraq in a second resolution at the end of January if arms inspections show Saddam is in breach of UN demands.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Guardianthat the US, Britain and other Security Council members would decide the seriousness of Saddam's breaches of Resolution 1441, not the UN weapons inspection teams - which would only establish the facts of any breach.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned that any hitch in the inspections process could prompt an attack and that Saddam now had his "finger on the trigger of war"
Mr Sergey Lavrov, Russia's UN ambassador, suggested the US may have alienated some Security Council members by declaring on its own that Iraq was in violation of the UN resolution. "It is for the Security Council to make the judgment," not a single country, he said.
And German Defence Minister Peter Struck said that Berlin, which has refused to join military action against Iraq even with a UN mandate, expected Saddam to be allowed to "improve" his country's arms declaration.
The US buildup for war showed no sign of abating. Quoting top defence officials, the Washington Postsaid the US is planning to expand its military presence in the Gulf by moving in 50,000 combat troops and tons of military hardware next month.
The deployment will also include tens of thousands of reservists and will give Mr Bush the option to start combat operations against Iraq in late January or early February. The war would come after January 27th, when Mr Blix gives the Security Council his first substantive report on Iraq's weapons declaration.