The US and Britain maintained a high degree of pressure on Iraq yesterday. The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said the world must not shrink from military action if President Saddam Hussein failed to disarm, and the British Defence Secretary, Mr Geoff Hoon, announced that almost a quarter of UK land forces were being sent to the Gulf in preparation for war.
Earlier in the day Dr Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, said a 10-point agreement had been reached after negotiations in Baghdad to allow his team greater access to sites and individuals, and greater co-operation from the Iraqi regime.
The Iraqi side said it was forming its own teams to search for banned weapons. After two days of talks with chief UN arms inspectors, Baghdad's officials were eager to appear conciliatory.
President Saddam's adviser, Mr Amir al-Saadi, read a joint statement at a news conference in Baghdad with Dr Blix and his No 2, Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
It said Iraq had handed more documents to inspectors, was clarifying others and was forming its own teams to search for suspicious items. UN inspectors discovered empty chemical warheads last week which Iraq had failed to report to the UN; Iraq said it had forgotten about them.
The statement said Iraq would also encourage inspections of "private sites", an apparent reference to places such as the homes of leading scientists, and to "private interviews", referring to talks between UN inspectors and Iraqi technical experts without the presence of Iraqi government minders.
Yesterday Cyprus accepted a UN request to be allowed bring scientists there to be questioned in the presence of Iraqi minders.
A cautious Dr Blix said he was "fairly confident" Iraq would honour its pledges. "We have solved a number of practical issues, not all," he told the news conference.
"We have come a long way" towards making the inspection process "effective and credible . . . There have been hitches and some of these hitches have been solved today. The whole world would prefer a credible disarmament of Iraq through inspections. And the better inspections we have, the more credible is this alternative."
However, he later told EU leaders in Athens that Iraq had refused permission for U2 spy planes to be used to help the inspectors.
The British reaction to the deal was cautious. The Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, told the UN Security Council he was "unimpressed".
In Washington the White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said: "We're only interested in actions. After 11 or 12 years of watching Saddam Hussein give his word and not keep it, his word is not as meaningful as his actions."
Mr Powell told the Security Council that when Dr Blix makes a progress report to the council on January 27th, "we cannot fail to take the action that may be necessary because we are afraid of what others might do . . . We cannot be shocked into impotence because we are afraid of the difficult choices that are ahead of us."
However, indicating possible opposition to any proposal for military action, China and Germany, both members of the council, urged caution. China argued for giving the inspectors more time to search for weapons of mass destruction, while Germany flatly rejected military action, saying it could bring "disastrous consequences" to the region.
The French Foreign Minister, Mr Dominique de Villepin, agreed. "We believe that today nothing justifies military action," he said.
Britain's military commitment of a 30,000-strong land force would provide "a high-readiness, balanced and flexible force package, bringing together a wide range of capabilities", Mr Hoon told MPs.
"None of the steps we are taking represents a commitment of British forces to military action. These are measures necessary to provide a range of options which we may require. A decision to employ force has not been taken, nor is such a decision imminent or inevitable."
The UK land force will join more than 100,000 US troops already in the Gulf.
There are 6,000 frontline combat troops in the British force. They will be equipped with 120 Challenger 2 battle tanks, 150 Warrior armoured personnel carriers, 32 AS-90 self-propelled guns and reconnaissance vehicles. No details were given of where the troops will be based or when they will leave for the Gulf.
Britain's largest naval task force since the Falklands, led by the aircraft carrier Ark Royal has already set sail for the Mediterranean.
