The United States and Britain seem headed towards a war with Iraq today after UN weapons inspectors delivered a balanced report to the Security Council yesterday.
British Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw has said Iraq was in "material breach" of UN demands under Resolution 1441.
Speaking on BBC radio, Mr Straw recalled paragraph four of the resolution, which stipulates that a failure to co-operate or the making of "false statements and declarations" would be regarded as "a further material breach" on the part of Iraq.
"As of today, according to the reports that we've received, Iraq is now in further material breach of both those limbs of operational paragraph four. It's profoundly serious in Iraq," he said.
Later he said it was "inescapable" that Iraq was in material breach but that war was not inevitable.
Russian president Mr Vladimir Putin indicated that his country's position on Iraq may toughen if UN inspectors were hampered in their efforts.
Tonight, US President Mr George W. Bush will prepare Americans for war in his annual State of the Union address. But there was no indication Mr Bush would use tonight's speech to outline new evidence proving that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
Instead, he is expected to use the 9.01 p.m. (2.01 a.m. Irish time tomorrow) speech before a joint session of Congress to outline the perceived threat posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and to prepare them for the possibility of war.
Aides said the president would not give an ultimatum to Iraq but would repeat that time is running out for Baghdad to comply with a UN disarmament resolution. The warning comes even as Democrats appealed for Mr Bush to give UN weapons inspections more time.
Last night US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Iraq "still threatens international peace and security.
"The issue was not how much more time the inspectors needed to search in the dark, but how much more time Iraq should be given to turn on the lights and come clear," he said.
But other countries and the UN are not yet convinced. Under a proposal made at the UN yesterday, Iraq will be given 18 more days to show "pro-active" co-operation. The Security Council will meet tomorrow to decide on this timeframe.
Following reports from the UN arms chiefs to the Security Council on their first two months of operation, the United States said Baghdad was not co-operating with the inspectors or complying with UN resolutions to give up weapons of mass destruction Washington says it has.
UN weapons chief Dr Hans Blix said Iraq had co-operated in opening sites for inspection but had fallen short of filling in gaps in last month's declaration on its weapons programmes. He said further moves were up to the Security Council.
The head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog, Dr Mohamed El Baradei, told the Security Council two months of inspections had produced no evidence Iraq was reviving its nuclear arms programme, dismantled by the UN in the 1990s. He also sought more time - a few months.
Germany, France, Russia and Canada said the arms experts needed more time, as did Secretary-General Amr Moussa of the 22-member Arab League and states neighbouring Iraq.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin said today Moscow's position against Iraq could toughen if UNarms inspectors were hampered.
"If Iraq will start hampering (the work of inspectors), I donot exclude the fact that Russia could change its position."We are ready to work towards different solutions. I am not saying which but they could be more tough than before," Mr Putin told students at Ukraine's main university during three-day visit.
Agencies