While urging President Bush to pursue efforts to disarm Iraq through the United Nations before resorting to war, the Republican-led House had voted overwhelmingly Thursday to grant him the power to strike if necessary.

With Congress authorizing US military action against Iraq, the UN Security Council -- and especially France and Russia -- could now represent the last real obstacle to war.

"The House of Representatives has spoken clearly to the world and to the Security Council. The gathering threat of Iraq must be confronted fully and finally," Bush said in a brief statement of thanks to lawmakers.

"The days of Iraq acting as an outlaw state are coming to an end," he said.

Bush is eager to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein , whom he sees as a threat to the United States and its allies. He wants congressional support for a possible military strike should Iraq not cooperate fully with UN inspectors looking for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons capability.

House Majority Leader Richard Armey, a Texas Republican who backed the war-powers resolution after initial skepticism, said confronting Saddam was central to protecting the United States in the war on terrorism.

"If you're going to conduct a war on terrorism then you must stop that person who is most likely and most able to arm the terrorists with those things that will frighten us the most," Armey said. "A strike on Saddam is an integral part, a necessary part of the war on terrorism."

IRAQI OFFER, US DISMISSAL

Iraq reiterated its denial that it is not developing weapons of mass destruction.

"If the Americans commit a new foolish action against Iraq, we will teach them an unforgettable lesson," Abdul Tawab Mullah Hwaish, an Iraqi deputy prime minister, told a news conference in Baghdad.

"The American administration are invited to inspect these sites," he said. "As I am responsible for the Iraqi weapons programs, I confirm here that we have no weapons of mass destruction and we have no intention to produce them."

Baghdad's move to thwart the US threat of invasion helped oil prices retreat to their lowest level in three weeks on Thursday but the White House dismissed the offer -- as it has repeatedly with other such overtures in the last few weeks.

"This is not up to Iraq. This is up to the United Nations," Whiter House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. "The only question that remains is what terms would inspectors go back in under so they can do an effective job."

Iraq has agreed, under intense US pressure, to allow arms inspectors to return after a four-year absence, but the 15-nation UN Security Council is still locked in negotiations on how intrusive it wants UN inspections to be.

BRITAIN WOOS RUSSIA

Russia and France, which hold a veto in the 15-nation body, are leading resistance to Washington's demands for a UN resolution that would essentially give Bush the right to declare war without any further UN consultations if he decided that Iraq had violated the terms of the resolution.

This week, Bush laid out terms that many believe Saddam Hussein would find extremely difficult to accept, including that Iraq must allow UN inspectors to interview witnesses outside the country and these witnesses must be free to bring their families with them so they could testify without fear.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington's strongest ally on Iraq, flew to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he was "sensitive" to Moscow's big economic interests there.

Blair was due to meet Putin Friday for talks in which he was seeking to secure Moscow's backing for a tough UN stance against Iraq.

On the ground in Iraq, US and British warplanes raided an airport near the port of Basra, but while American officials said they had attacked air-defense radar, Iraq said they had targeted civilian installations.

Such attacks have increased in recent months as US and British jets police two no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq set up after the 1991 Gulf War when a US-led military alliance forced invading Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.

But as the war drums beat, the former commander of US forces in the Gulf spoke out against attacking Iraq, saying a policy of containment would work and Washington had at least five higher priorities in the Middle East.

"I think this wolf (Saddam) can be left for another shot," said retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni. "... I'm not convinced we need to do this now. I believe he is ... containable at this moment," he told the annual meeting of the Middle East Institute, a Washington think-tank.

(China Daily October 11, 2002)