WASHINGTON, 14 September — A defiant Iraq yesterday flatly rejected US demands for the speedy and unfettered return of United Nations weapons inspectors, bringing a step nearer the prospect of an American-led preemptive strike against the country.

In Baghdad’s first top-level response to the virtual ultimatum delivered to the General Assembly by President George W. Bush this week, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz raised Iraq’s now familiar objection — that inspections are pointless since Washington is bent on toppling the regime, whatever the outcome of the inspections themselves.

“The return of inspectors without conditions will not solve the problem...because we have had a bad experience with them,” Aziz said in an interview with the Arab satellite channel MBC, referring to the American and British air attacks after the inspectors last left Iraq in December 1998.

Declaring himself “highly doubtful” that President Saddam Hussein will meet Washington’s demands, Bush expressed the hope that the Security Council would act on the issue within “days or weeks, not months.”

The urgency was underlined by Secretary of State Collin Powell, in an interview with ABC TV, as he started on a round of meetings with European foreign ministers and representatives of the 15 countries on the Security Council. “There has to be deadlines this time. In the absence of deadlines, the Iraqis will string us out, will try to negotiate away or simply ignore the resolution,” said Powell.

Britain was also forthright. Iraq would only agree to the return of the inspectors if it was “written on their eyeballs” that the alternative was military action, Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, said.

As Powell put it, the “heavy lifting” at the UN would start next week with two crucial issues unresolved: the attitudes of Russia and China, permanent members of the Security Council, with veto powers, and whether there will be a single resolution, or two as suggested by President Jacques Chirac of France.

Britain and the US would prefer just one resolution, both setting a deadline and making clear the consequences if it is not met. They fear the French variant, in which the follow-up would only be decided once Saddam was in breach of the deadline, would give the Iraqi leader room to prevaricate as he has done in the past.

China yesterday was noncommittal, indicating that the crisis should be settled within the framework of the United Nations.

Russia opposes any attack. But US officials believe it can be bought off with assurances that its significant economic interests in Iraq will be preserved under a new regime. But in Moscow, the Undersecretary of State John Bolton rejected suggestions that the US might permit Russia to attack Georgia to eliminate alleged Chechen bases in neighboring Georgia, as a quid pro quo for Soviet acquiescence in a US campaign against Saddam.

In the Middle East, signs emerged of some softening in hostility to US-led strikes. Saying that Bush had opened a door for settling the dispute, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt told Iraq to comply with UN resolutions, or face confrontation. (The Independent)