The two chief UN weapons inspectors have flown to Baghdad to press for full Iraqi co-operation with their inspection teams and have reported "some progress" in what they are describing as a last-ditch effort to avoid war.
Dr Hans Blix and Dr Mohamed El Baradei, who flew into Iraq yesterday, held talks with senior Iraqi officials including the Vice-President, Mr Taha Yassin Ramadan.
Dr El Baradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said of the talks: "We are still meeting tomorrow but we have made some progress. It would be very good if we could make as much progress as possible before the meeting next week of the Security Council."
Dr Blix, who heads the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, said on arrival in Iraq: "We do not think war is inevitable. We think the inspections process is a peaceful alternative."
However, Washington is still insisting that President Saddam Hussein is not co-operating.
The US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, said the US had "a sizeable coalition of the willing . . . with or without a second UN resolution. The test is: is Saddam co-operating or is he not co-operating? That's what the UN asked for. He is not doing that."
The US National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, said that January 27th - the date of the chief inspectors' report - was not a deadline but "probably marks the start of a last phase".
"I think we are at the verge of an important set of decisions, because time is running out here," she told NBC television.
Dr Blix warned that the discovery of documents at the home of an Iraqi scientist and the discovery of shells the inspectors say were not declared were an indication that information was being withheld.
UN inspectors raided a scientist's house last Thursday and found 3,000 pages of material reportedly related to the enrichment of uranium which could be used for the production of nuclear weaponry. Dr Faleh Hassan accused the inspectors of behaving like the "mafia" and of trying to use his wife's illness to get him to leave Iraq for questioning.
Also on Thursday, a dozen shells were found in a bunker in the desert near the early Islamic fortress of Uhaidar. Yesterday Dr Blix said senior officials came forward with information on the discovery of four new empty chemical warheads. "Iraq has an obligation to give a full declaration so they [the documents] should have been given" to the inspectors.
While he admitted that undeclared documents and bomb shells were not weapons of mass destruction, their discovery was "a sign that not everything has been declared and that is worrying".
The unearthing of these documents and of undeclared empty shells over the past few days was "a bit troubling." Dr El Baradei said their existence revealed the need for Iraq to back up its insistence that it has no nuclear, chemical or biological weapons or long-range missiles with clear proofs.
His spokeswoman, Ms Melissa Fleming, underlined the inspectors' messages: "What we are looking for is proof that they have destroyed weapons, proof that they haven't produced weapons. We are saying Iraq has to make the effort itself to prove it, not just open doors."
Dr Blix said this visit was a final effort to secure Iraq's full co-operation with the inspectors ahead of his report to the United Nations Security Council on January 27th.
He and Dr El Baradei were received by Saddam's adviser on weaponry, Gen Amir Saadi, and driven to al-Rashid hotel in central Baghdad where they were mobbed by the press. They met the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Dr Naji Sabri, yesterday afternoon and are due to depart today.
Meanwhile, anti-war protests were held in various parts of the world - including Shannon - over the weekend.
In the United States, where the largest rallies took place, thousands marched in Washington and San Francisco.
There were smaller protests in Chicago and Tampa, Florida, in what organisers said was the largest showing of US anti-war sentiment since President Bush started making his case for attacking Baghdad last year.