United Nations: Hours after the US and its partners Britain and Spain gave the UN one more day to agree to a resolution demanding Iraq's immediate disarmament, France, Russia and Germany have rejected giving any ultimatum to Iraq and have called for giving Baghdad "realistic time" to fulfill key disarmament tasks and more time to weapons inspectors to do their job.

As President George W Bush said that "tomorrow is a moment of truth for the world" after emergency talks in Azores, the UN Security Council members decided to hold a closed-door meeting on Iraq at 10:00 hours (20:30 IST) on March 17.

Earlier, the Council was due to meet in the evening but it advanced consultations by five hours as its members realised that time was fast running out.

Bush had said in Azores on March 16, "The Iraqi regime will disarm itself or the Iraqi regime will be disarmed by force, and the regime has not disarmed itself."

The UN chief inspector Hans Blix called the situation "very threatening" but said unless there was a sudden decision to withdraw the UN team from Iraq, inspectors would continue to work as normal.

He said he would push forward with a 30-page work programme and a list of key remaining disarmament tasks he wants Iraq to complete. Also, with the prospect of military action looming ahead, Blix was considering an invitation to visit Baghdad.

France offered to consider 30-day deadline to Iraq provided the inspectors recommend that but without giving any ultimatum to Baghdad. The US immediately rejected the idea and inspectors are unlikely to recommend it.

PTI