Iraq, threatening a "fierce war" if attacked, rejected yesterday a draft US-proposed Security Council resolution requiring Baghdad to comply with tough new arms inspection rules or face military action.
Iraq's defiant rejection came amid a US and British diplomatic campaign to persuade other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - France, Russia and China - to overcome grave concerns and back the proposal designed to rid Iraq of any nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Iraq would not accept extra measures contained in the draft resolution, which gives Iraq one week to accept demands to disarm and 30 days to declare all its weapons of mass destruction programmes.
"The stance from the inspectors has been decided and any additional procedure that aims at harming Iraq won't be accepted," Ramadan told reporters.
Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz warned that the United States would sustain huge losses if it attacked Iraq and that his country would fight a "fierce war".
US President George W. Bush, whose avowed policy of "regime change" in Iraq means toppling President Saddam Hussein, has pledged to act without UN approval if necessary, and yesterday urged action before it was "too late".
"By then, the Iraqi dictator will have had the means to terrorise and dominate the region, and each passing day could be the one on which the Iraqi regime gives anthrax or VX nerve gas or someday a nuclear weapon to a terrorist group," Bush said.
Seeking to press the US case, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman met Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in Moscow yesterday, where he is likely to face the same resistance to the draft resolution as he did in France.
Grossman appeared to make little headway in Paris on Friday and Russian leaders have said Iraq's agreement to let UN arms inspectors return is sufficient to avoid any use of force.
In a bid to persuade China, Britain has sent officials to Beijing but itself faced protests at home.
Waving anti-war banners and chanting slogans against "Bomber Bush and Bomber Blair", tens of thousands of Britons joined a big peace rally in London to oppose a military strike on Iraq.
Under threat of force, Washington wants radically to change the ground rules for UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, demanding access to any site and protecting inspectors with a security force, according to those familiar with the UN draft.
The proposed UN Security Council resolution, backed by Britain, would declare Iraq has already violated current UN demands and authorise military action if Baghdad fails to comply by accounting for its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
A spokeswoman for President Jacques Chirac said France remained committed to a plan for two resolutions - one on readmitting inspectors and a second providing for tough measures only if they encountered difficulty.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says there is no need for new UN Security Council resolutions and that all efforts must be made to ensure the inspectors can quickly resume their checks for weapons of mass destruction.