The US intends to stage a showdown at next week’s crucial Security Council meeting and present “clear and resounding” evidence of President Saddam Hussein’s serial obstruction of UN weapons inspectors.

America will confront its 14 fellow council members in turn, defying each to ignore evidence that Iraq is in multiple breach of its obligations as laid down by the UN. It will then threaten to bypass the UN if France and Germany try to thwart plans for military action.

The US argues that a failure to take on Saddam promptly would risk destroying the UN’s authority — a message that President Bush is expected to reinforce in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, the day after the weapons inspectors report to the Security Council.

France and Germany were enraged yesterday as the US set out to isolate them in their opposition. They took particular exception to the Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s description of them as “old Europe”. Even the more dovish Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke of nations that would like to “turn away from this problem, pretend it isn’t there”.

As increasingly bitter insults flew across the Atlantic, Russia swung into the debate, saying there was no reason to start military action against Iraq. Igor Ivanov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said: “We hope that no country will take single action outside UN decisions.”

But America made clear that its allies’ misgivings would not change its course of imminent confrontation. Officials said that attempts by Paris and Berlin to continue the UN inspection regime indefinitely were likely to backfire, encouraging Washington to go ahead without them and increasing the likelihood of war. Washington also issued thinly veiled warnings to France that its influence in a post-Saddam Iraq would be vastly diminished if it chose to “be on the sideline”.

Mr Powell and Jack Straw emerged from talks in Washington to assert that there was no need for further UN authority to launch military action since the Security Council had already agreed that Iraq should face “serious consequences” if it did not assist weapons inspectors. They added that the French and German objections were incoherent, given their backing for the original resolution.

The US continued its week-long publicity blitz, a “steady drumbeat” designed to set the scene for Monday’s Security Council meeting. Britain has previously tried to play down that meeting, but yesterday Mr Straw described it as an “important moment”.

Paul Wolfowitz, the US Deputy Defence Secretary, said that Saddam had been threatening any Iraqi scientists who co-operated with the UN that they would be murdered along with their families.

General Powell said that Iraq’s co-operation was “flawed, incomplete and inadequate”, while Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Adviser, said that Iraq was continuing to dodge UN inspectors. “Material and documents are still being moved around in farcical shell games.”

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