PRESIDENT BUSH and Tony Blair are to reinforce the passage of a new United Nations resolution on Iraq with firm statements leaving President Saddam Hussein in no doubt that failure to comply will mean military action.

The President and Prime Minister are expected to issue their hardline message to Saddam on the day that the UN finally approves the compromise resolution setting terms for the work of the weapons inspectors and removal of the mass destruction arsenal.

News of the joint strategy came as it emerged that the United States is asking the UN Security Council to lay down strict deadlines for Iraq to demonstrate its compliance with renewed weapons inspections, beginning seven days after the passage of a new resolution.

The US draft resolution, obtained by The Times, demands that Iraq “shall state its acceptance” of the toughened inspection regime within seven days of being notified of a Security Council vote, which could come as early as this week.

Within 30 days of the UN vote, Iraq will have to provide “an acceptable and currently accurate, full and complete declaration of all aspects of its programmes to develop” weapons of mass destruction.

Inspections will resume within 45 days after Iraq’s declaration, and the inspectors will then have 60 days to report back on what Iraq must do to secure a lifting of sanctions. The result is that the UN inspectors are not required to report back to the Security Council for 135 days — more than four months — unless something goes wrong.

But the resolution requires the inspectors “to report immediately to the Council any interference by Iraq with inspection activities, as well as any failure by Iraq to comply with its disarmament obligations”. The Security Council would then “convene immediately . . . to consider the situation and the need for full compliance . . . to restore international peace and security”.

The five permanent members of the Security Council met again yesterday in New York amid continuing French and Russian objections to the US draft. Diplomats said that France was particularly uncomfortable with language attached to Iraq’s 30-day declaration of its weapons of mass destruction, which French officials say could provoke a war.

The US draft says: “False statements or omissions in the declarations submitted by Iraq pursuant to this resolution and failure by Iraq at any time to comply with, and co-operate fully in the implementation of, this resolution shall constitute further material beach of Iraq’s obligations.”

Dominique de Villepin, the French Foreign Minister, said on a visit to Luxembourg: “Some progress is still needed, and so we have much work to do.” Russian officials were disappointed by the new US draft, saying that it did not answer the criteria that the Russian side had laid out earlier.

John Bolton, the hawkish US Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, who is visiting Moscow, said that the matter would be raised by Russia with Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State.

In another snub to Washington, Russian and Iranian Atomic Energy Ministry officials met in Moscow to discuss an Iranian nuclear power plant even as Mr Bolton was holding talks with the Russian Foreign Minister.

In an effort to court international support, Mr Bush has said that Washington is willing to try diplomacy “one more time” and would consider full co-operation by Saddam as tantamount to a “regime change”.

US Chinook plea

Eight new Chinook helicopters ordered for the RAF are expected to be handed over to the Americans instead, after an urgent plea from Washington. In a bizarre buy-back, the United States has said that it has only 20 left and needs to replace ones lost in Afghanistan and the Philippines. Other Chinook operators, apart from Britain, have also been approached, Jane’s Defence Weekly said.

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