Destroying missiles would be to 'sign death warrant', says Iraq

An increasingly cornered Iraq complained yesterday it might be signing its own death warrant if it obeyed a United Nations order to destroy dozens of missiles at the moment the US is poised to lead an invasion.

"They want us to destroy them at a time when we are threatened daily," said Owayed Ahmed Ali, the director of the Ibn al-Haithem plant, which produces the al-Samoud missiles, after another visit by UN weapons inspectors.

The protest is the most specific reaction yet to the demand by Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, that Baghdad start destroying the missiles by Saturday, after they were found to exceed the 93-mile range permitted by existing arms restrictions on Iraq.

With the order coming barely a week after Mr Blix's relatively benign report on 14 February, US diplomats were delighted. Not only does it impose a de facto deadline for Iraqi compliance, it also fits in with the likely timetable for the Bush administration to go to war.

Yesterday, President George Bush met Spain's Prime Minister, Jose-Maria Aznar, one of his strongest European supporters, at his ranch in Texas to discuss the new Security Council resolution Britain and the US will introduce tomorrow.

The draft is understood to contain no specific deadline. It will state that Iraq has failed to comply with UN resolution 1441 ordering it to disarm. Baghdad thus faces "serious consequences", the diplomatic formulation that authorises the use of force.

On Friday, Mr Blix will deliver a new report, this time behind closed doors. The next day is the deadline for Baghdad to start getting rid of its al-Samouds. Shortly after that, and certainly by 14 March, Washington and London are expected to force a showdown vote in the UN.

Whatever the outcome, Mr Bush repeated last week that the US would if necessary lead a "coalition of the willing" against Iraq. An invasion could begin any time, perhaps around 23 March, when moonless conditions will provide maximum advantage for US forces. Some analysts speculate the invasion might be launched sooner, if the administration calculates that further delay will erode international support.

As of last night – barring an act of reckless defiance by Saddam Hussein – the odds were stacked against London and Washington securing the required nine Security Council votes to pass the second resolution.

Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, who is on a visit to East Asia mainly devoted to the stand-off with North Korea, will take time out in Beijing to press for support from China, a veto-holding member of the council. Washington will also use economic and financial sticks and carrots to try and bring waverers on board, as it is doing with Turkey.