Washington not likely to call warheads a 'material breach'

The Bush administration has decided not to go immediately to the United Nations Security Council to insist that the discovery by weapons inspectors on Thursday of 12 undeclared chemical warheads in Iraq constitutes a "material breach" of Iraq's disarmament obligations and therefore justifies military action against Baghdad, U.S. officials said on Friday.

Although the administration believes Iraq's failure to declare the warheads constitutes a violation of its disarmament obligations, officials said they would instead include the finding as part of a broader indictment of Iraq's record that Washington intends to present to the council later this month.

The United States will try to focus its attention in the coming weeks on pressing the inspectors to conduct more aggressive inspections in the hope of uncovering further evidence of Iraqi defiance.

At the same time, officials said, the administration will begin assembling what it believes is a convincing case that Iraq has engaged in a pattern of violations.

These include Iraq's attacks on U.S. and British war planes enforcing no-fly zones, its filing of a weapons declaration last month with glaring ommissions, and its import of missile engines and other equipment that are barred under a UN arms embargo, officials said.

"We believe a persuasive case will be there at the end of the month that Iraq is not cooperating," Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview with a German newspaper.

The White House sought to keep the pressure on Iraq, saying that the discovery of the 12 artillery rockets at an ammunition warehouse provided further proof that the Iraqi government has failed to disarm.

It noted that Iraq's failure to declare the warheads in a December weapons declaration Baghdad pledged was complete raised questions about whether Iraq has hidden other weapons, including more than 15,000 similar rockets for which the United Nations has been unable to account.

"The fact that the Iraq is in possession of undeclared chemical warheads, which the United Nations says are in excellent condition, is in and of itself a serious and troubling matter," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "The discovery of 12 chemical warheads is proof that (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) has not disarmed."

The discovery of the chemical warheads was not raised Friday in a closed door session of the 15-nation Security Council.

"We haven't even touched the subject in the council," said Gabriel Valdes, Chile's UN ambassador. France's UN ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, who is serving as the council president this month, told reporters that it was up to the inspectors to decide whether they want to "come and give us information."

The UN's chief inspector, Hans Blix, and Mohammed El Baradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, are scheduled on January 27 to present the council with a major report on Iraq's record of cooperation since UN arms experts resumed inspections in November.

The report is expected to argue that Iraqi violations are insufficiently grave to provoke a decision on whether to go to war. It is likely to be cited by many in the council as grounds for continuing the inspections.

But Fleischer made it clear that the United States and other Security Council members – not the inspectors – would make the final determination as to whether Iraq has complied with its obligations under the terms of a November 8 Security Council resolution to abandon any chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes.

The inspectors "mission is to inspect and to verify and to dismantle. The United States, members of the Security Council, have the right to judge the actions that they're taking," he said.

Blix and El Baradei travelled to Paris and London on Friday, appealing for more time to complete a search for evidence of Iraq's weapons programmes.