President Bush said last night he will force a vote seeking UN authorisation to invade Iraq within days.
Dismissing Iraq's destruction of banned missiles in recent days as a charade, President Bush repeated he could launch a war without UN approval because US security was paramount.
"If we need to act, we will act and we really don't need the UN's approval to do so," President Bush said in only the second prime-time news conference of his presidency. "When it comes to our security, we really don't need anybody's permission".
Asked if he was close to a war decision, President Bush said he was still in the final stages of diplomacy. He said he would spend only a matter of days trying to persuade nations to support a new UN resolution before bringing the issue to a vote regardless of its chances of passage.
Britain, the strongest US ally on Iraq, said it was searching for a formula that could command a majority in the Security Council, where Mr Bush faces increasingly stiff opposition from veto-holders France, Russia and China.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell also discussed possible changes in the proposed text of the new resolution with foreign ministers of key European nations in an effort to win wider support.
Mr Bush had accused Iraq of hiding materials for weapons of mass destruction and ordering continued production of banned missiles while making a "public show" of destroying some arms.
"These are not the actions of a regime that is disarming. These are the actions of a regime engaged in a willful charade. . . . If the world fails to confront the threat posed by the Iraqi regime, refusing to use force even as a last resort, free nations would assume immense and unacceptable risks," he added.
With about 300,000 troops poised to attack Iraq as soon as Bush gives the order, the United States has been trying to round up the nine votes needed in the Security Council.
So far the United States only has four certain votes - its own and those of Britain, Spain and Bulgaria.
Diplomates said Britain was floating a proposal that would give Iraq a deadline of less than a week to show it had no nuclear, biological or chemical weapons programmes after a resolution authorising war was adopted.