A day after U.S. President George W. Bush bundled his terms for Iraqi disarmament into one package, his secretary of state began doing some heavy diplomatic lifting at the United Nations.

Colin Powell began talks Friday with world leaders to craft a UN resolution to implement Bush's plan – either Iraq agrees to admit UN weapons inspectors on the president's terms, or it risks "unavoidable action."

George Bush
George Bush

Bush said Friday that "we must have deadlines, and we're talking days and weeks, not months and years."

To be approved, the resolution has to be backed by nine of the 15 members of the Security Council. Once the Council has passed a resolution, it binds the whole UN.

Powell may have a hard road ahead; Britain supports Bush's approach to Iraq, but the other three permanent members of the Security Council – Russia, China and France – have been less enthusiastic.

Powell met the foreign ministers of Russia, France, Britain and China for lunch Friday – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

"I am pleased with the response I received from the president's speech," Powell told a news conference.

"I think all the members of the council are now seized with the issue, recognize the challenge that Iraq does present to international law and to the mandate of the Security Council."

But Powell didn't comment on whether any countries beyond Britain had agreed to back the U.S. threat of a military strike against Iraq. China, which has already said it wants to see a diplomatic solution, could veto any resolution to use force.

Both Russia and France opposed U.S. threats of unilateral action against Iraq and its leader, Saddam Hussein, and asked Bush to act through the United Nations – a position UN Secretary General Kofi Annan also took.

Bush said he would try the UN route, but also warned that if that failed, the U.S. might act by itself. "The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced – or action will be unavoidable."

He said Saddam has rejected or evaded 16 UN resolutions calling for weapons inspections and disarmament since the Persian Gulf war of 1990-91.

The U.S. is unlikely to negotiate with Iraq, and has a very short timeline for acceptance of its terms. In listing his conditions for the return of the inspectors, Bush repeatedly said if Iraq wants peace, it must act "immediately and unconditionally" to:

  • destroy its weapons of mass destruction and missiles;

  • renounce terrorism;

  • stop persecuting its own people;

  • settle outstanding debts and questions about missing personnel from the Gulf War;

  • let the UN administer Iraq's oil money.

The Security Council's five permanent members once again called on Iraq Friday to obey past UN resolutions.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who read the statement, called it "a serious matter" and added his own remarks.

"If he (Saddam) refuses to co-operate with the UN Security Council, the Iraqi government will take responsibility itself for possible consequences," Ivanov said.