Iraq 'moment of truth' looms

Powell called on Nato to 'do the right thing'

Decision time for Iraq and the United Nations Security Council is rapidly approaching, according to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"We are reaching the moment when the UN Security Council can no longer look away. It is clear that a moment of truth is coming with respect to Iraq and with respect to the Security Council," Mr Powell said in an address to the US Senate.

Nato is divided over whether to aid Turkey

Mr Powell was referring to Friday, when the UN's chief weapons inspectors, Hans Blix and Mohammed ElBaradei, are to make a crucial report on whether Iraq has been complying with disarmament demands.

Washington is pushing for military action against Iraq.

But a senior German Government source has said that 11 out of the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council support prolonging weapons inspections in Iraq.

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Where key nations stand on Iraq

On Monday, UN Security Council members Germany, France and Russia issued a declaration demanding increased inspections and a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

"I am convinced that it would be a grave error to be drawn into unilateral action, outside of international law," Russian President Vladimir Putin later told France's TF1 television.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin has added his support for more inspections in a telephone call to French President Jacques Chirac.

Iraqi tactics

Iraq has given an initially negative response to the appeal for strengthened inspections of its weapons programmes as an alternative to military action.

In an interview with an Arabic newspaper, Al-Hayat, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Naji Sabri, said he did not dispute the good faith of the French and Germans in putting forward their initiative, supported by Russia.

This is time for the alliance to say to a fellow alliance member, we agree with you and if you are concerned, we are concerned, that's what alliances are all about

Colin Powell speaking on Nato dispute

But Mr Sabri said Iraq could not accept the suggestion that UN soldiers be deployed to support the weapons inspections.

The BBC's correspondent in Baghdad, Rageh Omaar, says Iraq is carefully playing its diplomatic cards.

Iraq, he says, is announcing concessions to the inspectors, such as allowing the use of U-2 spy planes, to aid the momentum against war by seeming to co-operate.

Nato rift

At Nato headquarters in Brussels, a meeting aimed at healing a dramatic split over when to start military preparations for a possible war on Tuesday broke up without agreement.

After two postponements during the day, ambassadors from the 19 Nato countries met for only 20 minutes, diplomats said.

The members will reconvene on Wednesday morning to try to resolve the crisis, which was triggered when France, Germany and Belgium on Monday opposed Nato plans to begin shipping defensive equipment to Turkey - the only Nato member bordering Iraq.

US REQUEST FOR TURKEY

Patriot anti-missile batteries

Awacs surveillance planes

Chemical, biological protection units

Quick guide to Nato

In his Senate address Mr Powell accused Belgium, France and Germany of opposing the Nato plan as a political tool to advance their point of view in the UN.

"France and Germany and Belgium at the moment are using their blocking power... to signal their disagreement with the approach that we need to bring this to a resolution with Iraq in the very near future at the UN," Mr Powell said.

He called upon the Nato allies "to do the right thing" for their fellow Nato member Turkey.

"This is time for the alliance to say to a fellow alliance member, we agree with you and if you are concerned, we are concerned, that's what alliances are all about," Mr Powell added.

Al-Qaeda tape

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the US and the other alliance members would proceed with planning "outside of Nato if necessary".

However, Nato's future as a collective body could be irreparably damaged if it cannot agree to start the military planning process, the BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus says.

In his speech, Mr Powell also said Washington had new evidence that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was connected to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime.

Mr Powell said a new message from Bin Laden linked his terror network to Baghdad.

He was referring to the latest audio tape - allegedly from Bin Laden - which was later broadcast on Arabic-language TV station al-Jazeera.

The message urged Muslims to resist US attacks on Iraq, and warned Arab states against backing the US.

In other developments:

• Aircraft taking part in US-British patrols attack surface-to-air missile systems near Basra in southern Iraq, the US military says

• US officials lay out plans for a two-year military occupation of Iraq in the event of an invasion

• UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw rejects calls for more weapons inspections in Iraq, arguing that "even a 1,000-fold increase" in inspectors would achieve nothing

• Greece confirms EU emergency summit on Iraq will go ahead next Monday

• UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is to meet informally with all Security Council members to discuss UN preparations for any humanitarian emergency in the event of war

• Spain and Germany fail to resolve their opposing views on the crisis during talks in Lanzarote

• Amnesty International urges the UN Security Council to face up to the human cost of any conflict in Iraq