US secretary of state Colin Powell

Jack Straw has set a timetable for full Iraqi compliance with UN weapons inspectors.

Replying to the latest report from Hans Blix, the foreign secretary gave Saddam Hussein until the end of next week to decommission his weapons.

He said the world had waited long enough for Baghdad to fall into line.

"Nobody - not one minister before this council - has said that Iraq is now fully, actively and immediately in compliance with 1441. They have not taken this final opportunity," he said.

He argued directly against France's foreign minister saying the issue was not about finding more time to be sure of compliance.

"We have to put this man to the test. This man has shown he doesn't need more time to comply. He has shown this week he can act with astonishing speed when he chooses. The truth takes only seconds."

"The progress that has been reported represents the tip of a huge iceberg of unfinished business," Straw said.

Straw issued an amendment to the US-UK resolution that Saddam must comply fully with resolution 1441 by March 17 and called for support.

"The council must send Iraq the clear message that it will resolve this crisis on the UN's terms," he said.

US secretary of state Colin Powell gave a blunt assessment of the Blix report.

Powell said "inspectors should not have to look under every rock, go to every cross road, look in every cave to find evidence".

He said Iraq should be inundating inspectors with information and the December 7 declaration by Saddam Hussein should have left no outstanding issues.

Powell argued that a strategic decision had been taken by Iraq to deceive in the hopes that the West would give up.

The decision had been taken by Baghdad not to co-operate and the message should be sent to Saddam that "no-one had been taken in" by transparent acts, he argued.

Resolution 1441 requires "full and immediate co-operation and we must hold Iraq to its terms" he said.

Russia's foreign minister made an appeal for unity and called for more support for the inspectors.

"We all stand on the same side of the barricades," he said.

French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin said Iraq was resolutely moving towards the removal of illicit weapons.

"Why should we now engage in war with Iraq? Why smash the instruments that are now proving so effective?"

He called for the pace of inspectors to be stepped up accepting the current situation "cannot go on forever".

In the UK, Conservative shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said Saddam Hussein still has time to avoid a war.

"Reluctant or partial compliance of the sort at which he is a past master cannot be enough. Allowing him to buy time is not an option," he said.

"His attitude must change. If it does not, then I believe the international community must act.''

Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: "These two reports do not provide a casus belli. Both Dr ElBaradei and Dr Blix report that there has been a substantial measure of disarmament and that the inspection effort is yielding results.

"Iraq may not have co-operated as quickly as desired but it is clear that there is still mileage in the programme of inspections. Military action based upon the contents of these reports is not justified."