The United Nations Security Council is meeting to discuss the latest crisis with Iraq. The meeting follows Baghdad's refusal to co-operate with the UN weapons inspection team currently in Iraq. Iraq says the team which is led by an American is unbalanced. UN correspondent, Rob Watson reports from New York:

This is very familiar territory to most Security Council diplomats. It's also certain to produce similarly familiar divisions among the Council's major powers.

The United States and Britain are already calling for a tough response from the Council while France, Russia and China are taking a more cautious wait-and-see approach. Those divisions mean it may take some days before the Council issues any kind of statement never mind any concrete action.

In Washington though, US officials are still stressing their willingness to act through the UN and the international community rather than go-it-alone. At the same time, they're also reminding Iraq there's still a large US military presence in the Gulf and that Washington is prepared to use it.