In a unanimous resolution, neither did the Security Council threaten any action if Iraq ignores the demand nor did it set any deadline for easing and lifting of sanctions demanded by Iraq as a price for resuming cooperation.

The US and Britain would have liked the resolution to carry a threat for enforcement but they dropped the idea in the face of opposition from Russia and China. Russian envoy Sergey Lavrov warned against use of force, saying it could have dangerous consequences on the Middle-East peace process.

Baghdad had announced on Saturday a decision to stop cooperating with UN arms inspectors after curtailing their work August 5. Iraq said it would not resume cooperation even if it were attacked militarily.

Iraq charged again on Thursday that the UN Special Commissionon disarmament (UNSCOM) is playing a US game to perpetuate the embargo imposed on Baghdad in 1990.

``The allegations that Iraq is capable of producing bacteriological weapons were shorn of any foundation and aimed to continue the hostile campaign orchestrated by the US,'' said General Hussam Mohammed Amin, chief of the national surveillance department, the Iraqi counterpart to UNSCOM.

He was referring to a statement on Tuesday that British UNSCOM inspector David Killy made about Baghdad's bacteriological arms capability. ``US Secretary of Defence is repeating today the act he put on (last winter) but with other actors, members of the suspect UNSCOM," Amin said.

US strike possible

NEW YORK: A US military strike on Iraq could come as early as next week, NBC television reported today, quoting diplomatic sources. The report said forces capable of executing a strike on Iraq were already in the region and said Saudi Arabia and Turkey had given permission for a US military deployment from their soil. The report did not give further details.