The United States will not have to wait for a second United Nations resolution to attack Iraq in the event of any obstruction of weapons inspectors, the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said yesterday.
His warning came as Iraq considers the seven-day ultimatum for accepting the tough new UN resolution on disarmament that expires on Friday. At the same time the US stepped up psychological pressure on Baghdad by leaking war plans for an intensive air strike followed by an invasion of up to 250,000 troops.
The US believed it already had enough authority to take military action "either as part of a UN effort or separately with friends" in the event of non-compliance with the resolution, Mr Powell told CNN yesterday. There should be no ambiguity, he said. If there were a violation, that would be a material breach of the resolution, and that was "not a judgment to be made by anyone else".
President Saddam Hussein "knows that if he does not co-operate with inspections, if he violates this resolution, military force is coming in to take him and his regime out," Mr Powell said.
On Friday the UN Security Council passed by 15-0 a resolution to return weapons inspectors to Iraq. Ireland's Ambassador, Mr Richard Ryan, told the body that as far as Ireland was concerned it was for the council to decide on any ensuing action.
US administration officials also said that UN weapons inspectors, who will return to Baghdad next Monday, planned to force an early test of President Saddam's intentions by checking if Iraq's list of weapons sites matched a list of 100 priority sites prepared by Western experts.
The resolution, which says that any "false statements or omissions" regarding weapons sites would constitute a "material breach" gives Iraq until December 8th to submit a list of its weapons sites.
The US war plan calls for an invasion force to seize most of the country and encircle Baghdad but assumes that President Saddam will fall from power before American forces enters the capital, senior US military officials told the Washington Post.
The US military would also launch air strikes at suspected repositories of chemical and biological weapons, military officials said. Over the weekend the US army loaded heavy equipment for an invasion force into the Tern, a giant cargo ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
The plan has been approved by Mr Bush, US officials told the New York Times. On Saturday Mr Bush said: "Iraq can be certain that the old game of cheat-and-retreat can no longer be tolerated."
His National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, said that even a delay of two hours in admitting inspectors would be a breach of the resolution. She was sceptical that Iraq would comply.
"We have to have a zero-tolerance view of the Iraqi regime this time. We do not need to waste the world's time with another game of cat and mouse," she said.
Deaglán de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, writes:
Irish diplomatic sources have dismissed as a "gross exaggeration" a report in a US newspaper that Ireland, along with others, was "aggressively courted" by France for support on the Security Council.
France led the opposition to a resolution seen as giving a blank cheque for unilateral US military action against Iraq. The main countries taking a similar approach were Russia, Mexico and Ireland.
According to last Saturday's New York Times, the French "suprised" the US by their "aggressive courtship" of other council members, principally Ireland, Mauritius, Cameroon and Mexico.
But Irish diplomatic sources said last night there were no aggressive approaches from any quarter, only the "normal contacts" with the US, French, British and other council members.
Government sources expressed considerable satisfaction at the final text of the Security Council resolution, claiming that two months ago an Iraqi war had seemed almost inevitable, but now there was "every possibility" of resolving the matter peacefully.
Ireland had supported the French approach, reflecting the views of the vast majority of UN member-states that military action should only be taken with Security Council authorisation.