A Deadline For Saddam

Britain and the United States proposed Friday giving Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to comply with U.N. inspections by March 17 or face war.

"We have to put this man to the test. He doesn't need more time to comply," British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said of Saddam. "As he showed this week, he can act with astonishing speed when he wants to."

But, reports CBS News Correspondent Bill Plante, the deadline idea was rejected at once by France, which has led the opposition to the use of force in Iraq, and vowed to oppose any resolution that would lead to war.

"We cannot accept an ultimatum as long as inspectors are reporting cooperation," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told the U.N. Security Council. He said a deadline would be "a pretext for war."

"France will not allow a resolution to pass that authorizes the automatic use of force," he said.

China and Russia also rejected the idea of another resolution but didn't threaten to use their vetoes.

Deadline or no deadline, the U.S. still does not appear to have the nine votes – without a veto – which are needed to pass the resolution that would be the trigger for war. A vote is due next week.

Key swing countries such as Angola, Pakistan and Chile said they had problems with the resolution. Asked whether Angola could accept the new text, Angola's ambassador, Ismael Gasper Martins, said. "Unfortunately not."

"I don't think it's the sort of compromise that we were looking for or that we can support, not yet." He said the United States needs to be open to negotiations if it is to gain support before a vote next week.

Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix presented a generally upbeat report to the council Friday, saying Baghdad's cooperation "can be seen as active, or even proactive." Top nuclear inspector Mohammed ElBaradei made his strongest statement yet in support of Iraq's efforts.

"In the past three weeks, possibly as a result of ever-increasing pressure by the international community, Iraq has been forthcoming in its cooperation," ElBaradei said. "I do hope that Iraq will continue to expand the scope and accelerate the pace of its cooperation."

But Secretary of State Colin Powell urged members to read Blix's 167-page report detailing a long list of unanswered questions about Iraq's chemical, biological and missile programs over the past 12 years, which Powell called "chilling" and "damning."

Portions of the document, obtained by CBS News, list questions about the types and numbers of chemical and biological agents for which Iraq has never accounted. It states that inspectors "cannot discount the possibility that Iraq has developed mobile-production facilities or that it has production equipment at other hidden sites."

It says Iraq has given no evidence that its stocks of VX nerve gas or botulinum toxin were ever destroyed.

Evidently frustrated, Powell told reporters: "There are some people, in my judgment, who don't want to see the facts clearly."

With upwards of 300,000 troops now in the Persian Gulf or on the way, the U.S., Britain and others in what the White House calls a "coalition of the willing" are in the final stages of preparation for war – with or without U.N. backing.

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports U.S. marines have already asked the Kuwaitis to start clearing invasion lanes into Iraq by taking down the fences and sand berms on the Kuwaiti side of the border. And the chief of the British armed forces says his 40,000 troops will be ready to go by the middle of next week.

Another sign of the gathering storm: a third of the foreign embassies in Baghdad have closed and even Russia, so strongly opposed to war, is preparing to pull its diplomats out. Turkey is rushing troops to its border with Iraq; it says to prevent a flood of refugees but possibly to settle old scores with the Kurds in northern Iraq.

The U.S. has given up on plans to send 40,000 of its own troops through Turkey. Pentagon officials say all they want now is permission to fly air strikes through Turkish air space and to position search and rescue units on the border.

For its part the Iraqi military is doing very little – erecting berms around Baghdad; digging and, in a few cases, lighting off oil-filled trenches on the southeastern approaches to the city; positioning a Republican Guards brigade on the northern approaches to Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.

The lack of Iraqi preparations is a measure of just how weak Saddam's military is. But Pentagon officials see it as an ominous sign that he will decide his only hope is to use chemical or biological weapons.

In other developments: