Powell rules out weapons inspections without new resolution

US Secretary of State Colin Powell says the search for hidden arsenals in Iraq should be held up until the Security Council adopts tough new rules.

Mr Powell says sending inspectors back to Iraq now after a lapse of nearly four years would risk further deception by President Saddam Hussein.

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix reached agreement earlier in Vienna with Iraq to resume the inspections.

But Powell, in an unusual diplomatic confrontation, said: "Dr Blix is an agent of the Security Council and will carry out what the Security Council will do."

"Our position," Mr Powell said, "is that he should get new instructions in the form of a resolution."

And, he said pointedly, the Security Council will adopt its resolution without negotiating with Iraq.

"Everybody understands that the old inspection regime did not work," Mr Powell said. "They (the Iraqis) tied it up in knots."

Dr Blix in Vienna said an advance team of UN inspectors could be in Iraq in two weeks if it gets a go-ahead form the Security Council.

The deal ignores US demands for access to Saddam's palaces and other tough provisions of a resolution the United States and Britain have proposed jointly.

Referring to France, China and Russia, which could veto the resolution, Mr Powell said "other nations have a different point of view" but he said inspections would work only if there is a resolution that "keeps the pressure" on Iraq by warning of consequences if it continues to defy the Security Council.