The United States on Monday ratcheted up disarmament pressure on Iraq but key members of the UN Security Council called for giving inspectors more time following their first report on attempts to track down Iraqi weapons.

Iraq's opportunity for choosing peaceful disarmament is "fast coming to an end," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said, accusing Baghdad of responding to international demands with "empty claims, empty declarations and empty gestures."
The war debate took off again after chief inspector Hans Blix told the Security Council that Iraq had left many questions about its chemical and biological weapons unanswered.

He said that even last year Iraq had illegally imported 300 rocket engines that could be used for missile propulsion.

The growing threat of war turned financial markets into minefields, with gold prices exploding and stocks and the dollar taking cover.

France, China, Russia and Germany urged giving inspectors more time, a call Washington tried to shoot down.

"The issue is not how much more time the inspectors need to search in the dark," Powell said. "It is how much more time Iraq should be given to turn on the lights and come clean. The answer is: 'Not much more time'."
France, Russia and China - who along with Britain and the United States hold veto power in the Security Council - came out in favor of giving the inspectors more time to determine whether Iraq has disarmed.

"The reports ... have made it clear that the inspections should continue," said German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, whose country has led the anti-war camp in the 15-member European Union.

Germany is the current president of the UN Security Council.

"War is no alternative," Fischer said, while adding that it was "essential that Iraq must clarify oustanding questions."
In Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said the inspectors' report "does not mark the final stage in the inspectors' work in Iraq."
"It is only a preliminary account of their work and sets out the main principles for the future.

Inspections in Iraq must be pursued in line with existing UN Security Council resolutions," he was quoted as saying by news agencies.

France and Egypt likewise said they supported giving UN weapons inspectors more time to complete their mission. The announcement followed a meeting between foreign ministers of the two countries.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters it was "important that the inspectors' work be carried out within the time needed."
Zhang Yishan, Chinese deputy envoy to the UN, said that the work of the UN weapons inspectors has not completed and China hopes the inspectors will go on, Xinhua news agency reported.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the Blix report showed that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was practising "concealment".

But even Britain, the strongest US ally in the showdown with Iraq, agreed that a new report should be heard from the weapons inspectors at the security council on February 14, UN ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said. Germany has made the proposal but no final decision made.

Other traditional US allies also joined calls to give UN inspectors more time in Iraq.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said: "We think we need more time for the inspectors to make the report to the UN Security Council. And when they will report, we will be in a position to advise on the second" report.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark said she believed most UN members wanted inspectors to be allowed more time. "The question is how much will be settled for," she said in a radio interview.

The Iraqi UN ambassador Mohammed Aldouri said Baghdad had a "sincere willingness" to clarify any question relating to its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

"We are doing everything. We are cooperating in every way," he said, hoping to "finish the inspections as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, stock markets from Asia to Europe plunged, with few investors willing to buy stocks amid mounting US threats to wage a solo war on Iraq.

Share prices tumbled on Wall Street with the Dow Jones industrial average falling 142,68 points to close at 7 988,33.

In London, the FTSE 100 index of leading shares slumped another 3,6 percent to 3 473,8 points, levels not witnessed for more than seven years.

Aversion to US assets also sent the dollar tumbling to 1,0854 euros, a three-year low.

Gold prices soared to a new six-year high of $370,45 in London as investors scrambled for safe havens, while oil prices rose four cents to $30,53 a barrel on concerns about possible disruption to Middle East supplies - Sapa-AFP.