Instead, Bush plans to launch this week what officials called a deliberative process that would push the prospects for military action several weeks into next year.

He will press the United Nations to demand interviews outside of Iraq with Saddam's weapons scientists, forcing a showdown that Bush believes would bolster his case for war or reveal secrets of Saddam's arsenal, officials said.

The senior administration sources spoke on condition of anonymity after Bush met with his foreign policy team to sketch out strategy in response to Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration.

"My guess is that the United States will take some time and will talk to some of our friends and allies around the world about the (Iraqi) declaration and share ideas and thoughts about what's in it and what may not be in it," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told CNN's "Larry King Live."

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the US analysis of the Iraqi declaration "shows problems with the declaration, gaps, omissions, and all of this is troublesome." Rumsfeld said the US analysts reviewing the declaration "are still trying to find things ... that they expected to be there that weren't there."

The White House suggested Bush had problems with the declaration beyond previously disclosed omissions concerning chemical and biological weapons last noted in Iraq four years ago.

Bush, who plans to address the matter Friday, wants to soothe anxious allies and keep his pledge to have "zero tolerance" for the Iraqi president defiance - a balance aides concede won't be easy to strike.

Iraq's declaration, required under a UN resolution, asserts that Saddam has no weapons of mass destruction - a claim the United States says it is prepared to rebut.

"We are not encouraged that they have gotten the message or will cooperate," Powell said.

Rumsfeld said Iraq's chemical and biological arsenals are more formidable than during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

"In weapons of mass destruction, one has to believe they are much stronger," Rumsfeld said. "So, it is a dangerous business, and he (Saddam) is engaged in a dangerous game."

Bush intends to use lapses in the declaration as evidence of Saddam's ill intent, increasing pressure on UN weapons inspectors to use all their powers to uncover Iraq's deceits, the officials said.

Powell and John Negroponte, US ambassador to the United Nations, will outline Bush's position Thursday, with the president scheduled to follow on Friday.

Also Thursday, the United Nations' nuclear chief will tell the Security Council that further inspections are needed to verify Hussein's claims, UN officials said. Mohamed ElBaradei, joined by chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, will make a case for more inspections, said an official with the UN nuclear regulatory agency.

Presenting the administration's opening argument, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters that Saddam has missed the final opportunity to come clean about his weapons of mass destruction.

"This was Saddam Hussein's last chance," he said, while promising a "deliberative, thoughtful" US response.

The "last chance" comment evoked Bush's warning in November that should Saddam deny possessing weapons of mass destruction "he will have entered his final stage with a lie." Officials said that final stage begins Friday, when Bush issues his formal assessment, and could end in war several weeks from now.

Rumsfeld said the United States is "flowing forces" into the region to put pressure on Saddam.

"Every day that goes by, obviously, our capability to move faster and somewhat better improves," Rumsfeld said. "But if the Iraqis did something untoward today, we're capable of beginning and doing what we need to do, if the president said do it."

In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw echoed what aides said was Bush's assessment of the declaration, calling the assertion that Iraq lacks weapons of mass destruction "obvious falsehood."

Among the "obvious omissions" Straw cited was Saddam's failure to account for the weapons of mass destruction listed in the final report of the inspectors who left his country in 1998.

Straw said those inspectors accused Saddam of possessing nerve agents and other "chemical precursors" and munitions.

In Washington, administration officials said Bush decided - for now - against declaring Iraq in "material breach" of a UN resolution arms resolution, which would provide him with what the United States considers legal justification for war.

Bush believes Saddam will resist demands under the UN resolution to bring scientists out of Iraq for interviews. If Saddam refuses, the United States would have a case for "material breach" that US allies and the American public may find more justified than hastier action, the officials said.

On the other hand, if Iraq surprises Bush and turns over the scientists, US officials believe the witnesses would provide evidence that could be used against Saddam, officials said.

UN arms experts visited seven sites in Iraq on Wednesday. Also, a senior Iraqi ruling party official accused the United States of waging a "psychological war," but said Iraqis could withstand it.

(China Daily December 19, 2002)