US pulls out diplomats in final preparation for strike on Iraq

The United States has pulled out all but its most senior diplomats from countries surrounding Iraq, in preparation for a seemingly inevitable war.

Diplomats' families are also being evacuated, and the Polish envoy who represents US interests in Baghdad has been withdrawn – raising the question of whether anything can now halt the planned US invasion, which is expected to start within a month. The US has ordered a fifth carrier group to the Gulf.

Yesterday Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, the two top United Nations weapons inspectors, began two days of vital consultations in Baghdad ahead of their next report to the Security Council on Friday.

They were greeted by new Iraqi concessions, including a go-ahead for U-2 spy plane flights and unimpeded interviews with four Iraqi scientists. After a day of what Mr Blix called "very substantial" talks, it was announced that Iraq had handed important documents to the inspectors.

But officials in both Washington and London were scathing about these last-minute gestures from the Iraqi regime. Both governments are convinced that Saddam Hussein has no intention of letting go of his supposed arsenal of chemical and biological weapons.

The US's apparent rush to war could be deeply unsettling for Tony Blair, who needs to convince British public opinion that Iraq has been given every chance to co-operate with the inspectors, and that war, if it comes, has the clear backing of the UN Security Council.

In his weekly radio address yesterday, President Bush declared that Iraq's violations of UN resolutions "are evident, they are dangerous to America and the world and they continue to this hour". Saddam had been given a final chance. "He is throwing away that chance."

An identical message was delivered yesterday by Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, to European diplomats and military specialists in Munich. He delivered a blistering attack on France and Germany for their "inexcusable" blocking of Nato moves to help Turkey in the event of military action against Iraq.

Today Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, and Mr Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, will go on telvision talk-shows to hammer home Mr Bush's warning that unless the UN acts to enforce its own resolutions, it will become a mockery.

In an 11th-hour attempt to arrest the momentum towards war, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, yesterday warned Washington against attacking without a mandate from the world body. "War is always a human catastrophe," Mr Annan declared in Williamsburg, Virginia.

The Security Council was more divided than ever, as diplomatic manoeuvring intensified over a possible second resolution that would give UN cover to an American-led attack to topple Saddam.

France, which last week seemed to be hardening its position against any new resolution giving even tacit authorisation, says that of the 15 security council members, 10 or 11 favour giving the inspectors more time – including Russia, China and itself, all with veto powers.

Details emerged yesterday of a last-ditch plan by Paris and Berlin whereby the number of inspectors in Iraq would be trebled. They would be backed by thousands of armed UN peacekeepers. United Nations sanctions would be reinforced, the existing no-fly zones in Iraq's north and south would be extended to the entire country, and the 150,000 US troops already in the region would stay, ready to attack if Saddam continued his defiance. The country would, in practice, become little more than a UN protectorate.