With US and British forces being deployed to the Gulf region in increasing strength, a senior US diplomat issued a blunt warning to Baghdad that alternatives to war were nearly exhausted.

Bush made no secret of his impatience with nations that want to give UN weapons inspectors in Iraq more time.

"It's clear to me now that he is not disarming ... He's been given ample time to disarm," Bush said of the Iraqi leader. "Time is running out."

For their part, the UN inspectors said they needed several more months to check Iraq's denials that it was developing weapons of mass destruction. Security council powers France, Russia and China called for more time for diplomacy.

But Bush responded: "This business about more time -- how much more time do we need to be sure he is not disarming?

"This looks to me like a re-run of a bad movie and I'm not interested in watching it," he added, saying Saddam had been defying UN resolutions since his Gulf War defeat in 1991.

Asked how much more time he would give Saddam to comply with UN demands to disarm or face military action, Bush said,"I'll let you know when the moment came."

Bush is massing more than 150,000 troops in the oil-rich Gulf and has made clear he is ready to use them, with or without a new UN mandate. Britain, his main military ally, has also ordered thousands of troops to the region.

ALTERNATIVES EXHAUSTED

Oil prices hit two-year highs as the Pentagon ordered two more aircraft carriers and 37,000 troops to the Gulf. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said the alternatives to using force against Baghdad were "just about exhausted."

"This regime has very little time left to undo the legacy of 12 years," Armitage said of Iraq. "There is no sign, there is not one sign that the regime has any intent to comply fully with the terms of (UN) resolution 1441, just as it has failed to comply with any of the other 16 UN Security Council resolutions."

Resolution 1441, passed unanimously in November, threatens "serious consequences" in the event of a "material breach" -- meaning Iraqi evasion or obstruction.

Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix is to deliver a report to the Security Council on Monday. If he voices dissatisfaction with Iraq's cooperation -- and he told Reuters on Tuesday there were still "many questions" unanswered -- it could mean war.

The Security Council meets two days later on Jan. 29 and Bush will meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Jan. 31.

Washington has made clear it sees no need for further Security Council approval for an attack on Iraq -- and France for one underlined that it will not get that mandate any time soon.

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Paris wanted to rally the European Union against a hasty decision to fight: "We see no justification today for a (military) intervention, since the inspectors are able to do their work," he said in Brussels. "We could not support unilateral action."

FRENCH RESISTANCE

France, which has still left the door open to eventual use of force, has a veto on the 15-seat Security Council, along with the United States, Britain, Russia and China.

A White House spokesman voiced some frustration with the French stance, arguing that Paris agreed Saddam was lying.

The EU is sharply divided, with Germany firmly against any war and Britain mobilizing alongside the Americans.

Russia, too, spoke out against a hasty switch from a policy of diplomacy and inspections to one of bombing and invasion.

"Most countries in the Security Council and in the international community at large believe that it is vital to pursue both political and diplomatic efforts," Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said in Moscow. "And most countries believe that opportunities for a diplomatic solution are far from exhausted."

Mohamed ElBaradei, the UN nuclear agency chief who will report with Blix on Monday, said the inspectors needed "quite a few months" more to finish their work. He told Reuters:" I'm pleading for the inspection process to take on its course."

Turkey, a staunch NATO ally which has misgivings about helping start a war on its own doorstep, said it would host a meeting of regional foreign ministers in Istanbul on Thursday. They would urge Baghdad to obey UN disarmament demands.

The killing of an American defense contractor and wounding of another in what US diplomats called a "terrorist" shooting near a US base in Kuwait highlighted tensions in the region.

Saddam's survival strategy seems partly to be to divide the UN powers by keeping others satisfied with its cooperation.

"Iraq has accepted and cooperated with UN resolution 1441 but there is a build-up and the beating of war drums has not changed," said his vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan.

But Blair, who is sending the bulk of Britain's ground fighting force to the Gulf despite slipping public support for a war, said Saddam should not expect divisions in the Security Council to save him. He and Bush would go it alone if need be.

"We mustn't give a signal to Saddam that there is a way out of this," Blair told a parliamentary hearing in London.

(China Daily January 22, 2003)