or his part, the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, noted that the message to emerge from the briefing was that there is no doubt that the pro-active cooperation that the U.K. has been looking for on substance from Iraq has not been forthcoming.

"I think Iraq is missing an important opportunity to clear up those remaining questions, which the declaration has failed to do, and a number of members of the Council were worried, as the UK is worried, by Iraq missing that opportunity," he said. "As the days go by, the failure of Iraq pro-actively to cooperate, if that is continued, will become an increasingly serious matter."

Ambassador Gunter Pleuger said Germany made it clear that it is up to Baghdad to make sure that the disarmament of Iraq can be done in a peaceful manner, by cooperation. He said Germany found large parts of the Iraqi declaration needed improvement and that it contained many questions left open that have to be dealt with by the Security Council and by further questioning of Iraq by the weapons inspectors.

He also said that Berlin subscribed to the recent statement by Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the inspections should continue "and for that reason alone there are no grounds military action."