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BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, Sunday (Reuters, AFP)

Baghdad pondered its response at the weekend to a U.N. disarmament call while U.S. President George W. Bush approved war plans for an initial assault on Iraq if it fails to comply.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said late on Saturday that Baghdad was still studying Friday's unanimous Security Council call to allow U.N. arms inspectors unfettered access to any site suspected of producing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, or face serious consequences.

"Iraq has not issued a decision and Iraq is studying this resolution," Sabri told reporters in response to questions after a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo.

Earlier Sabri said U.S. attempts to use a U.N. Security Council resolution as a cover for an attack on Iraq had failed.

"The United States' use of the Security Council as a cover for aggression against Iraq was foiled by the international community because the international community does not share the appetite of the evil administration in Washington for aggression, murder and destruction," Sabri said.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Baghdad had expressed readiness once again to deal with the return of arms inspectors to Iraq after a four-year gap.

In Washington, officials said Bush had approved a plan to initially capture parts of Iraq and establish footholds to thrust in 200,000 or more troops if Baghdad failed to comply with the U.N. resolution.

The officials, who asked not to be identified, stressed that the plan was flexible, but that Bush had in recent weeks accepted advice from army General Tommy Franks that smaller numbers of troops could not capture and hold Iraq if invasion became necessary.

Saying any attack was unlikely until early next year unless Iraq refused to comply with Friday's U.N. resolution, the officials said an assault would begin with a smaller number of troops while U.S. bombers attacked President Saddam Hussein's palaces, air defences and bases.

Nations around the world praised the resolution as a chance for peace, saying it was up to Baghdad to disarm and prevent a lurch back to war.

France, which with Russia helped to tone down the original U.S. draft of the resolution, said it would not be opposed in principle to the use of force if Iraq did not observe the U.N. call to disarm.

In Baghdad, Iraqis reacted with apprehension, anger and defiance. Many said they wanted peace, but feared war was inevitable.

"This should not be called the Security Council, it should be called the Bush council because it is America that directs it. It uses its members as chess pawns," said Khaled Khalifa, a 43-year-old teacher.

Meanwhile United Nations weapons inspectors will demand that Baghdad produce a comprehensive list of weapons sites, and will check that list against more than 100 priority sites compiled by Western experts, the New York Times reported Sunday.

The demand is seen as an early test of Saddam Hussein's willingness to cooperate with Friday's UN Security Council resolution demanding that Iraq comply with a tough new inspections regime.

Officials told the daily that the site list had been quietly put together in the last several months, winnowed down from more than 800 in the United Nations' database.

An advance team of about a dozen inspectors is expected to head for Baghdad around November 25 to make spot inspections. Between 80 and 100 inspectors are due to resume their work in full by December 23.

Meanwhile Britain will begin mobilising a fighting force of 15,000 troops this week to take part in a land war in Iraq if diplomatic efforts to disarm Saddam Hussein fail, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

The British force will comprise up to 200 Challenger battle tanks, and at least two squadrons, about 150 men, from special forces will also be placed on standby, the paper said.

An official announcement of the mobilisation, which will include warships, submarines and warplanes, is expected to be made on Wednesday, the right-wing weekly added.

The forces would be instructed to make plans to move to the region, most probably to Kuwait, but they would not receive final orders to deploy.

The United Nations Security Council gave Iraq a seven-day ultimatum on Friday to agree to a powerfully enhanced weapons inspection regime, warning it of "serious consequences" if it failed to disarm.

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