“Access has been provided to all sites we have requested to inspect,” Blix told the Security Council.

However, Blix was sharply critical of Baghdad government in his keenly-awaited report to the Security Council, highlighting some areas of non-cooperation, according to the BBC’s online news service:

1. Iraq may still have stocks of anthrax

2. Baghdad has failed to account for up to 300 rocket engines

3. The Iraqi weapons declaration last December contained no new material

“Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance - not even today - of the disarmament which was demanded of it,” he said.

He said Baghdad had refused to grant a request for the use of U-2 spy planes and cited “strong indications” that Iraq had produced more anthrax than admitted in a report filed last month.

Blix also said that proof rather than presumptions are required to determine whether Iraq has proscribed weapons of mass destruction.

“Presumptions do not solve the problem. Evidence and full transparency may help,” Blix said.

Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), appeared before the top U.N. body to report on progress in their first two months of work hunting down Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, amid mounting U.S. threats to wage a solo war on Iraq.

For his part, Baradei said that IAEA inspectors had not identified any illegal nuclear activities in Iraq but he asserted that Baghdad needs to be more “pro-active” in helping nuclear experts do their work. He also called for several months for his inspectors to finish their work, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

ElBaradei said that U.N. weapons inspectors should be able to provide “credible assurance” that Iraq has no nuclear weapons within a matter of months.

Only minutes before the report was presented, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said he expected the Security Council to give weapons inspectors more time to complete their work in Iraq.

“If they do need time, they should be given the time to finish their work,” Annan told reporters. “I suspect the council will allow for that time,” he added.

Following the report, France and Egypt said they supported giving U.N. weapons inspectors more time to complete their mission in Iraq, following a meeting, in Paris, between the foreign ministers from the two countries.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters it was “important that the inspectors’ work be carried out within the time needed.”

His Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Maher said it was “necessary to accept the inspectors’ work.”

For its part, Russia insisted that Iraq was providing “adequate” cooperation to U.N. weapons inspections and the report by the chief U.N. arms inspectors showed that they needed to pursue their work.

As the United States called on the U.N. Security Council to face its responsibilities and warned the inspections were “running out of time,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov hammered home the opposite message, according to AFP.

The report by ElBaradei and Blix “does not mark the final stage in the inspectors’ work in Iraq,” Fedotov said, in comments made shortly after the long-awaited briefing.

“It is only a preliminary account of their work and sets out the main principles for the future. Inspections in Iraq must be pursued in line with existing U.N. Security Council resolutions,” he added.

The Russian diplomat said that the U.N. inspectors were getting “adequate” cooperation from Iraq in their search for weapons of mass destructions after two months of activity, but they needed more information.

“The inspections are taking place with adequate cooperation from the Iraqis, who are providing timely access for the inspectors to all sites,” he noted. “But at the same time there are questions about which UNMOVIC and the IAEA want to get more information from the Iraqis.”

There was “no need at this stage to draw up a new U.N. Security Council resolution on Iraq,” the deputy foreign minister said.

However, the United States told other members of the U.N. Security Council it expected them to decide to enforce resolutions on Iraq “in the days ahead”.

“There is little time left for the council to face its responsibilities,” U.S. ambassador John Negroponte told other members in consultations behind closed doors, according to a transcript of his remarks published by his office.

The council went into consultations after hearing an hour-long briefing in public from Blix and ElBaradei.

Negroponte noted that under council Resolution 1441, Iraq was obliged to make a full and accurate declaration of its weapons of mass destruction and provide the inspectors with “immediate, full and active cooperation.” Iraq “failed both tests,” he claimed.

“In the days ahead, we believe the council and its member governments must answer the following questions,” the transcript of his remarks said.

“What message does council irresolution send to Iraq and other proliferators? Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it choose to make itself irrelevant?”

Minutes after the report was presented, Negroponte, in a clear grumbling tone, dismissed the call for more time needed by the inspections to complete their mission.

For his part, Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations Mohammed Aldouri said that Iraq has a “sincere willingness” to clarify any question relating to its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

The ambassador spoke after Blix and ElBaradei delivered their reports on Iraq to the United Nations Security Council.

Baghdad has a “sincere willingness to clarify any question,” Aldouri said.

“We are doing everything. We are cooperating in every way,” he said, hoping to “finish the inspections as soon as possible.”

The ambassador emphasized that his country has given “unconditional and immediate access” to the U.N. weapons inspectors.

“There is no more need for inspections or inspectors,” he added. “We are willing to cooperate fully.”

Aldouri bemoaned the difficulty of life in Iraq under the United Nations sanctions imposed after the end of the Gulf war.