"What we have agreed, and it would be quite wrong if we had done anything else, is to wait and see what the inspectors say, to reflect and digest what they say, and then come to decisions on a second resolution," Straw told the BBC radio.

"The crucial issue here is not the issue of more time, it's of more cooperation," Straw said. "What Iraq has got to show, and it is getting very late in the day, is that they are now actively and substantively cooperating in the way demanded of them by (Security Council Resolution) 1441."

"Words have to have meaning, and the meaning of those words was that if there is not the most full and active substantive cooperation by Iraq, then force would have to follow," Straw said, emphasizing that he was confident that the UN would back a new resolution on Iraq.

Straw was expected to fly to New York on Friday to hear the latest inspection report from chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Earlier reports quoted British diplomats at the United Nations as saying that the United States and Britain could propose by Saturday a draft resolution on Iraq to gain UN support for military action.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the staunchest US ally on disarming Iraq, said Thursday that Iraq would be "in breach" of a UN Security Council resolution if the report of an extended-range missiles in Iraq was confirmed.

It was reported on Wednesday that international missile experts told chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix that the range of Iraq's Al Samoud missile exceeds the limit of 150 km set by UN security council.

(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2003)