Britain was the only veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council to strongly back the United States after Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation on Iraq, with France saying war should be a last resort and China and Russia calling for more inspections.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the only possible conclusion from Powell's presentation was that Iraq was in "further material breach" of UN resolutions demanding it rid itself of weapons of mass destruction.

Straw told the council that UN Resolution 1441 -- which calls for "serious consequences," diplomatic language for a military attack, in the event of Iraqi noncompliance -- was very clear.

"The United Kingdom does not want war, ... but the logic of Resolution 1441 is inescapable," he said.

"Time is now very short," Straw said, pointing to next week's report to the council by UN weapons inspectors as marking a decision-making moment.

"If (Iraqi) non-cooperation continues, this council must meet its responsibilities."
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said the Council must consider the possibility of war against Iraq if UN weapons inspections in that country fail.

"If this path fails and leads us into an impasse, we rule out no option, including, as a last resort, the use of force, as we have said all along," he told the Security Council.

But the French minister repeatedly emphasised that the inspections which began on November 27 must be more intrusive. "Let us double or triple the number of inspectors and open new regional offices" in Iraq, he said.

France was willing to deploy Mirage-IV spy planes to help strengthen the surveillance, he said.

"We must strengthen the path of inspections chosen in Resolution 1441 which has not been explored to the limit," Villepin said.

"Why go to war so long as there is still a space in Resolution 1441 that has not been used?"
Russia insisted the inspections continue, and also offered to bolster the inspection teams with an airplane for surveillance and additional inspectors if needed.

Powell's presentation "indicates that the activities of the international inspectors in Iraq must be continued," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said.

"This information has to be immediately handed over for processing by UNMOVIC and the IAEA through on-site verification during the inspections in Iraq," he said, referring to the abbreviations for the teams searching for any biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs in Iraq.

"Experts in our countries must immediately get down to analyzing and drawing the appropriate conclusions," Ivanov said.

"We must once again appeal to all states immediately to hand over to the international inspectors any information that can help them discharge their responsible mandate," he said.

China also called for more inspections, and said the United States should hand the intelligence used in the briefing to the inspectors.

"It is (the inspectors') view that now they are not in a position to draw conclusions, and they have suggested continuing the inspections," Tang said.

"We should respect the views of the two agencies and support the continuation of their work."
"The two agencies pointed out some problems in the inspections.

We urge Iraq to adopt a more proactive approach with further explanations and clarifications as soon as possible and cooperate with the inspection process."
Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States have the power to veto any UN resolution.

But all council members, with the exception of the United States, have said a new resolution would be needed to give the green light for military action in Iraq, and even US President George W. Bush has said he might welcome a new resolution - Sapa-AFP.