(CBS) Signaling compromise, Secretary of State Colin Powell said "there may be a way" to bridge remaining differences with France and Russia on a U.N. resolution designed to force Iraq to disarm.

Powell's comments came as President Bush prepared for a White House meeting Wednesday with chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed El Baradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to discuss ways the U.S. draft resolution could be implemented.

"That's what we are working on, doing intensively today," Powell said Tuesday as American diplomats at the United Nations privately floated marginal revisions of the tough resolution sought by the United States and Britain six difficult weeks.

"We're hard at work and I think we are getting closer," Powell said at a State Department news conference. "But our basic principles remain the same."

"Clear indictment of Saddam Hussein's past behavior and current behavior has to be in the resolution," he said, and "there has to be a very tough inspection regime."

"And," Powell said, insisting on another key U.S. demand, "there have to be consequences. Otherwise, Iraq will try to deceive and distract and they may try anyway, even in the face of consequences."

A White House official said the Bush administration was using its threat to act alone against Iraq as a strategy to compel Russia and France to back the joint U.S.-British resolution.

While they do not like the resolution, the administration is hoping they will support it rather than be left behind, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld joined Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Foreign Minister Robert Hill at the news conference after an annual conference on security issues.

Australia has pledged to support the United States and Britain against Iraq.

Hill said he was hopeful Iraq could be forced to abandon its nuclear, chemical and biological programs "without the use of armed force."

"But our bottom line is that we do want to see an end to this program. It's gone on for too long," Hill said.

"The threat must be removed," he said.

Powell, for his part, said if the United States was unable to get a consensus to support the resolution it will have to decide "in the very near future" whether the Council should also consider competing resolutions.

France and Russia are poised to introduce resolutions that would call for renewed international weapons inspections after a four-year lapse but not threaten Iraq with force. That might be considered later if the inspectors are foiled.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer also said "time is running out" for the United Nations to decide on a resolution.

Two administration officials told The Associated Press the United States would not bend on the core issues in the proposed resolution. But they said there could be changes at the margins to satisfy such Security Council holdouts as France and Russia.

At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte met Tuesday with his French counterpart, Jean-David Levitte, to discuss possible U.S. concessions.

Specifically, one official said on condition of anonymity, the United States was prepared to give Iraq more than the 30 days the resolution would permit for the Iraq to list all its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Also, taking a cue from chief U.N. inspector Blix, the administration might relent on seeking to have Iraqi scientists who worked on weapons programs leave the country and be questioned abroad.

The main sticking point, he said, is declaring Iraq in "material breach" of U.N. inspection and disarmament resolutions. The United States considers the allegation essential, but U.S. diplomats are discussing possible ways to revise the phrasing while retaining the substance of the charge.

Blix' meeting with Mr. Bush Wednesday is his second within a month.

In Baghdad, Iraq sharply denounced the U.S. draft resolution, calling it tantamount to a declaration of war.

Iraqi state television said in a commentary that "each point of that draft resolution can be used to announce war in a way that threatens the security and safety of the world."

The U.S. military, which has been conducting exercises in several countries to get ready for war with Iraq if an attack is ordered, Tuesday announced yet another preparatory measure.

Gen. Tommy Franks, the commanding general of the U.S. Central Command, said Tuesday he will oversee a command post at al-Udeid air base in Qatar for a week or so in early December.

"Does it give us increased capability? You bet," Franks told a Pentagon news conference.

Franks said the purpose of the temporary command post - which could become permanent if a military attack were ordered - is to to test communications links with key battle staffs in the area.

Franks added that while Bush has not decided whether to use military force against Iraq, U.S. troops are prepared to carry out whatever mission they are given.

"In fact, that's what our planning activity is all about," said Franks.