By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) said Monday "the signs are not encouraging" that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) will cooperate with weapons inspectors and avoid a war threatened by the United States.
As a Sunday deadline neared, the president said he won't tolerate "any act of delay, deception or defiance."
Even as U.N. investigators reported progress in their first week of work, Bush said war may prove necessary. "The temporary peace of denial and looking away from danger would only be a prelude to broader war and greater horror," he said.
"America will confront gathering dangers early before our options become limited and desperate."
Weapons inspectors are carrying out a United Nations (news - web sites) resolution ordering Saddam to rid Iraq of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons or face the prospect of war.
The lack of a confrontation thus far between Iraq and inspectors has the White House worried that the Iraqi president might be winning the early public relations battle by creating an impression that he is complying. Aides said those fears prompted the president and Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) to deliver separate speeches Monday casting doubt on Saddam's intentions.
The U.N. resolution gives Iraq until Sunday to disclose its weapons of mass destruction, a deadline Bush and Cheney sought to cast as a major test of Saddam's will.
Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Al-Douri, said the declaration could be ready as early as Wednesday. "There will be nothing surprising," Al-Douri said. "We have repeated our position several times that we have nothing hidden."
The White House disputed that contention again Monday. Senior officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. intelligence has evidence of Saddam's weapons programs and is willing to share it with U.N. inspectors to help rebut the Iraqi declaration.
The U.S. is flying Predator unmanned surveillance aircraft to look for signs of Iraq's noncompliance with the inspections, said a defense official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The U.N. inspectors completed their first week of work Monday by visiting alcoholic beverage plants and a factory that once made parts for now-banned missiles.
While inspectors said some equipment of interest was missing at the Karama ballistic design plant, they have reported no problems gaining access to suspect sites nor have they made public any findings of deadly weapons. Still, Bush sought to make the case that Saddam is not complying with the resolution and is not likely to give an honest accounting of his weapons programs.
"So far, the signs are not encouraging," Bush said as he signed a bill giving the U.S. military its largest spending increase since the Reagan administration.
"A regime that fires upon American and British pilots is not taking the path of compliance. A regime that sends letters filled with protests and falsehoods is not taking the path of compliance," Bush said.
He was referring to Iraqi letters to the U.N. protesting terms of the resolution.
In Denver, Cheney spoke ominously about the Sunday deadline. "This time deception will not be tolerated," he told 1,500 Air National Guard leaders. "The demands of the world will be met, or action will be unavoidable."
Answering critics of Bush's Iraq policy, Cheney also said confronting Saddam is not a distraction from the broader war on terrorism.
"Iraq could decide on any given day to provide biological or chemical weapons to a terrorist group or to individual terrorists," Cheney said. "The war on terror will not be won until Iraq is completely and verifiably deprived of weapons of mass destruction."
Yet there also were signs that Bush would be patient.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said the Iraqi declaration "begins the process" under which inspectors will determine whether it is accurate. Privately, White House officials said they do not expect Bush to take immediate action against Saddam after the deadline, even if Iraq claims not to have weapons of mass destruction.
Instead, the United States will work to help inspectors prove deceptions, officials said.
While putting the onus on Saddam, Bush seemed to set limits on the authority of U.N. inspectors.
"Inspectors do not have the duty or the ability to uncover terrible weapons hidden in a vast country," he said. "The responsibility of inspectors is simply to confirm the evidence of voluntary and total disarmament."
"It is Saddam Hussein who has the responsibility to provide that evidence as directed and in full. Any act of delay, deception or defiance will prove that Saddam Hussein has not adopted the path of compliance and has rejected the path of peace," he said.
In London, one of Bush's most hawkish advisers tried to assure wary allies that the president wants to disarm Saddam without a fight.
"Our only hope ... of achieving the peaceful outcome is if we can confront the Iraqi regime with a credible threat of force behind our diplomacy," said Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, an independent think tank.
Even as he spoke of the desire to avoid war, Wolfowitz met privately with Iraqi opposition leaders who could help the United States build a post-Saddam Iraq.
Also looking ahead — and addressing criticism that he has not outlined plans for the country after Saddam's ouster — Bush announced later Monday that his special envoy to Afghanistan (news - web sites) will also now serve as in the same role and as ambassador-at-large for "Free Iraqis." In that post, Zalmay Khalilzad will serve as the main U.S. contact and coordinator for the Iraqi opposition and will oversee Bush's preparations for Iraq after Saddam.
The Afghan-born Khalilzad will continue his work helping Afghanistan rebuild and reaching out to the Muslim community on behalf of the White House.
But Khalilzad, who previously held posts in the Defense and State departments and has played a key behind-the-scenes role in the war on terrorism, will relinquish his job as head of the National Security Council's Southwest Asia, Near East and North African affairs office.