Worst weapons 'must be ceded within six months'

Iraq will suffer a military strike unless it cedes its deadliest weapon programmes within six months of the arrival of United Nations inspectors, according to the draft Security Council resolution for which Britain and America are seeking support.

If the council agrees, weapons inspectors could return within two weeks. Military action could begin after just two months if Saddam Hussein tries to obstruct their work.

The resolution provides for a review after two months of whether Iraq is complying. "We need to know whether he is genuine or playing games again, and we cannot let him string us along," a British source said last night.

The resolution makes clear that Iraq is considered to be in "material breach" of 16 previous UN resolutions and spells out the consequences of President Saddam's failure to comply with the council's demands. It makes clear the right of member states to take "appropriate action"--code for the use of force.

Senior British and US officials are due to arrive in Moscow later today, having discussed the content of the draft with their French counterparts yesterday and Thursday.

The French President, Jacques Chirac, told George Bush in a telephone call yesterday that he still wanted a two-step strategy. A UN security council resolution spelling out Baghdad's obligations to admit UN inspectors and disarm, without specific threats, should come first, he said. Only if Iraq fails to meet these obligations should the council discuss a second referendum threatening military action.

At the same time, another senior Foreign Office official, William Ehrman, will be in Beijing. "We are talking to the Russians and the Chinese. No one pretends it will be anything other than a long, uphill trek," one British official said.

Peter Ricketts, political director at the Foreign Office, spoke with French officials on Thursday, while US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Marc Grossman, was in Paris yesterday. Mr Grossman declined to comment to reporters as he arrived at the French Foreign Ministry.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, hammered out the draft in eight telephone calls with Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, between last Sunday and Thursday.

Mr Straw will join the frantic round of diplomacy this weekend by telephoning his counterparts in France, Russia and China.

Britain tempered US demands for even tougher language, which it feared would be rejected by the council's three other permanent members.

British sources admit the negotiations will be tough. The difficulty was underlined yesterday when the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, said any delay to the return of weapons inspections would be an "unforgivable error".

The US has said it will thwart the return of inspectors unless it secures the new resolution that spells out a military response if the inspectors are not given full, unfettered access.

In Iraq, three US congressmen arrived in Baghdad to plead for freedom of access for inspectors while President Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, accused Washington of behaving like an "arrogant cowboy".

* A former high-ranking Taliban diplomat, Naseer Ahmad Roohi, said yesterday that Osama bin Laden and former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar are alive and hiding in a remote area in Afghanistan.