BAGHDAD, 24 February 2003 — Iraq said yesterday it was considering UN demands to destroy banned missiles to avert war, as Washington launched a diplomatic drive to ensure backing for a new resolution paving the way for military action.

“We are serious in investigating this issue,” General Hossam Mohammad Amin told a press conference, after UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix demanded Iraq start destroying the Al-Samoud 2 missiles from March 1.

“We hope this will be solved without American or British intervention ... those who have evil intentions,” Amin added.

The United States was meanwhile rallying support for a new UN resolution on Iraq, which Washington could unveil as early as today as it tightens the screws on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in China on his second stop of a diplomatic tour to Japan, China and South Korea to get backing from Asian powers for a US-led war to disarm Saddam.

“It is time to take action... We are reaching that point where serious consequences must flow,” he said in Tokyo after winning Japanese support from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

But he faces a tougher sell in China, a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council which has repeatedly voiced its opposition to US President George W. Bush’s calls for war.

Bush insisted that Washington would give the United Nations a last chance and less than two months to pass a fresh resolution, after talks with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in Texas on Saturday.

“Time is short. And this is the chance for the Security Council to show its relevance, and I believe the Security Council will show its relevance because Saddam Hussein has not disarmed,” he said.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan also urged Iraq to fold to international pressure and abide by the UN demands to disarm.

“They have to destroy these weapons... I urge the Iraqis to do it and I’m confident they will destroy the weapons. If they refuse to destroy (them), the Council will have to take a decision on that,” he told reporters in Ankara.

A spokesman for Britain’s Tony Blair told AFP: “The prime minister will expect that there could be a period of a few weeks that will pass before that resolution will be voted on in the UN,” adding the draft would emerge “early next week,” a timeframe echoed by Annan. The efforts by Blair would be a “last push for peace,” he added. The British prime minister, Washington’s closest ally in preparations for war, held telephone talks with President Vladimir Putin, with the Russian leader explaining Moscow’s efforts to avert an attack on Baghdad.

Russia, which along with China and France holds veto power on the Council, has opposed Washington’s hawkish stance, but it was unclear whether the three would veto a US-backed resolution.

Syria, the sole Arab state on the Security Council, said it saw no need for a new Iraq resolution despite a request for its support from Powell.

Officials in Cairo said that 16 of the 22 members of the Arab League agreed to hold their annual summit on March 1 to discuss the Iraq crisis, although Baghdad has requested the meeting be delayed.