PRESIDENT BUSH said last night that the initial Iraqi response to UN weapons inspections was “not encouraging” as he left himself room to attack Baghdad even if the inspectors return empty-handed.

Mr Bush said that President Saddam Hussein had six days to show that he was serious about averting war, but he doubted that the Iraqi leader was capable of complying with UN demands that he disarm.

In his first comments since UN inspectors in Baghdad started work five days ago, Mr Bush brushed aside apparent Iraqi co-operation so far and hinted that the willingness to provide access on behalf of the Iraqi authorities masked obstruction behind the scenes.

Mr Bush was speaking as inspectors found that equipment and monitoring cameras were missing from a missile factory. Experts could not find items tagged by the previous UN inspection regime that should have remained at the Karamah compound in Baghdad. Iraqi officials said that the missing equipment had either been destroyed by Western bombing or had been moved elsewhere.

US officials also avoided direct comment on reports that Iraqi officials had admitted trying to import aluminium tubes banned under UN sanctions. However, they said that the tubes were for missiles rather than part of a nuclear programme, which Western intelligence suspects.

Speaking at the Pentagon, where he was signing a Bill to provide $393 billion (£252 billion) for military spending, including extra money for the War on Terror, Mr Bush said he expected Iraq to submit a “credible, complete” record of any chemical, biological, nuclear or other weapons programmes banned by UN resolutions. Saddam has until Sunday to deliver full details of his weapons programmes to the inspection team.

Mr Bush suggested that without Iraq’s full co-operation, the inspectors faced an impossible job. He made clear that he would not regard a failure on their part to unearth evidence of banned weapons programmes as proof they did not exist, leaving the way open for a US-led attack without evidence produced by the UN.

He said: “We must remember that inspections will only work if Iraq fully complies. The inspectors are not in Iraq to play hide and seek with Mr Saddam Hussein. Inspectors do not have the duty or ability to uncover terrible weapons hidden in a vast country. The responsibility of inspectors is simply to confirm the evidence of voluntary and total disarmament. It’s Saddam Hussein who has the responsibility to provide that evidence, as directed and in full.”

The White House wants to keep the world, and Saddam, guessing about its response to Iraq’s December 8 declaration. Officials have declined to say whether they would use American intelligence material immediately to prove Iraq’s declaration to be false by publishing evidence to the contrary.

Ari Fleischer, Mr Bush’s spokesman, said yesterday that Sunday was “the beginning of a process of verification that will decide whether Saddam Hussein is telling the truth”, suggesting that initially the United States would leave it to the weapons inspectors to find evidence proving Iraq’s submission to be false.

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