President Bush has stepped up his efforts to build an international coalition of backers for his declared aim of toppling the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.
A flurry of telephone calls yesterday saw him lobby the leaders of Russia, France and China, all permanent members of the UN Security Council and therefore capable of vetoing any American resolutions seeking a UN mandate for military action.
Mr Bush was supported by the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, who also lobbied President Putin and President Chirac.
"The president stressed that Saddam Hussein is a threat and that we needed to work together to make the world more peaceful," said White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer.
The consultations were about "how to remove the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and his relentless acquisition of weapons of mass destruction".
However, in a early indication that the US president has an uphill task, the Russian leader told him and Mr Blair that he had serious reservations about using force to topple Saddam.
France and China are also sceptical.
Mr Putin, speaking from his holiday resort in Sochi on the Black Sea, said there was "real potential" for a political solution to the crisis around Baghdad's alleged weapons programmes if UN weapons inspectors, who left Iraq in 1998, were allowed back, Kremlin spokesman Mr Alexei Gromov reported.
President Bush and Mr Blair will meet this morning in Camp David, the president's retreat.
The White House said Mr Bush would send envoys to Paris, Moscow and Beijing to consult after his address to the UN on Thursday when he will mark the anniversary of the September 11th attacks and underline the need to press home the war against terrorism. The Camp David talks are expected to focus on the possibility of rallying Security Council support for imposing a deadline on Iraq for the readmission of the UN inspectors, in a resolution that would also authorise the use of force if Saddam Hussein refuses.
UN experts poring over satellite pictures say they can't yet draw any conclusions as to the significance of changes at sensitive sites in Iraq.
However, the former UN weapons inspector, Mr Richard Butler, says he believes the US has evidence against Saddam.
He says: "He has those weapons, he has made more of them in the last four years since he threw me and our inspectors out. There's no doubt of that in my mind."