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The United States began cobbling together a viable international coalition against Iraq as US warplanes Wednesday launched another strike against Iraqi air defenses.

The diplomatic drive came as President George W. Bush, in Prague for a NATO summit, warned Iraq faced "the severest of consequences" if it failed to comply with a tight UN deadline to abandon its weapons of mass destruction.

Bush has vowed to lead "a coalition of the willing" to disarm Baghdad by force if it does not disarm and the UN Security Council does not act.

"It's a decision that each country must decide as to how, if and when they want to participate and how they choose to participate," he said.

Seeking to secure more support for his Iraq policy, Bush held what was described as a "constructive and useful" meeting with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

But according to a senior US officials, the two leaders agreed only to continue close contacts and work "in a number of other areas."

Turkey, a key US ally and the only Muslim member of NATO, has opposed attacking its southern neighbor, citing fears that it would deepen its economic crisis and lead to an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq.

In Washington, deputy State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said US diplomats had been instructed to ask their host governments about assistance -- from combat troops and materiel to transport and logistics -- they might be able to provide if Iraq did not comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1441 that demands disarmament.

"The United States is engaged in discussions with a large number of like-minded governments about what may need to be done if Iraq does not comply with Security Council Resolution 1441," he said.

Reeker would not say how many countries had been approached, but a senior State Department official said earlier that at least 50 and as many as 52 had received the requests.

The official declined to identify the countries but said the core was "the usual suspects" of nations -- such as NATO members and other close US allies, like Australia -- that have backed previous military action by Washington.

But Australian Prime Minister John Howard said early Thursday his country was not yet ready to commit itself to joining a US-led invasion of Iraq.

Britain, Canada, Denmark, France and Norway have said they have been approached by the United States for possible military help in the event of a conflict with Iraq, but indicated they had not yet decided how to respond.

As diplomats tried to rally allies to the US cause, the Pentagon stepped up pressure on Baghdad by launching a new strike against its air defense facilities.

US warplanes bombed three sites in southern Iraq, retaliating for a third time this week for Iraqi fire at coalition aircraft over the no-fly zones, defense officials said.

Rear Admiral David Gove said there has been a "spike" in Iraqi firing on coalition aircraft since Resolution 1441 passed November 8.

In Baghdad, the official INA news agency said enemy aircraft "bombed civilian installations in Basra."

But Gove said coalition warplanes targeted the air defense communication facilities near the towns of Al-Kut and Basra after Iraqi forces fired surface-to-air missiles at coalition aircraft over a no-fly zone in southern Iraq.

"We believe it is a material breach," of the UN Security Council resolution, said Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon spokeswoman.

"When and how action becomes the precipitating force, if you will, for there to be military action of far greater scope than what we're doing in the no-fly zone, it is a decision for the president and others at that level to make."

The resolution demands Iraq not take or threaten hostile action against aircraft of any member state working to uphold UN Security Council resolutions.

But UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in Yugoslavia Tuesday that he did not think the Security Council would say the attacks violated the resolution.

Gove said Iraqi forces have fired on coalition aircraft in southern Iraq on nine of the 13 days since the resolution passed. In the north, they have fired on two days during that period.

"As regards the recent activity, I would characterize it as a spike rather than a pattern," he said.

With the US military stepping up preparations for a possible invasion, six Iraqi opposition groups announced plans to meet in Britain in December to sketch out a post-Saddam Hussein future.

The talks had been planned for Brussels, but Hamid al-Bayati of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq said the venue was being switched after Belgium decided late last week against allowing the meeting.

US plans for military action against Iraq was on the agenda of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers that began in Damascus.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Arab League, said the ministers would examine ways to delay a US-strike against Iraq. 

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