Denmark¿s prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has called for "maximum pressure" on Iraq to allow the return of UN weapons inspectors.
"International inspectors must have free and total access to conduct their inspections to determine Iraq's capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction," Rasmussen told journalists.
Denmark currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency.
Refusing to be drawn on a possible war against Iraq, the Danish leader said: "Saddam Hussein is a threat to the region, but it's the clear belief of Denmark and the EU that any action taken - which remains hypothetical - must conform to international law."
Rasmussen, speaking during a visit by Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla, called on the international community to unite to "maintain maximum pressure on Saddam Hussein" to accept the return of weapons inspectors.
He said there was "hardly any doubt that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and the willingness to use them".
Rasmussen refused to say whether he had seen fresh evidence of such weapons, citing instead Iraq's use of them in the war against Iran and against the Kurdish population of his own country.
Rasmussen is to address Thursday's UN General Assembly in New York, where US President George W. Bush is due to present the case for military action against Saddam's regime.
Meanwhile, Spanish foreign minister Ana Palacio said military action against Iraq should not be considered until all diplomatic means are exhausted.
In Madrid, Palacio urged that "the path of diplomatic pressure must be fully exhausted" before any military approach is considered.
However, she told Spanish television, "if we want the United Nations to work, we must insist that its resolutions are respected."
She said her government did not agree with Germany's rejection of any use of force.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told a joint news conference on Saturday also attended by the French President Jacques Chirac, that Germany would not take part in military operations against Iraq, even if mandated by the United Nations.
Palacio said: "Obviously there are indications" that Iraq has the "wish to build a nuclear weapon and that this process is advancing rapidly."
By barring UN weapons inspectors, Baghdad is "trying to buy time," she said.
The Iraqi President is a "bloodthirsty tyrant who has used arms of mass destruction against his own people" and "it goes without saying that the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein," she said.
AFP