Relieved that the United States was not taking immediate military action against Iraq, world leaders are welcoming President Bush's offer to seek U.N. approval before moving to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday follows up Bush's address on Thursday to the United Nations by meeting all 15 members of the U.N. Security Council, which deals with international peace and security issues.

But diplomats said the drafting of any resolution would not begin for about a week, after ministers returned home from the annual opening of the U.N. General Assembly.

Unclear is whether widespread calls for U.N. approval are a way to dissuade the United States from military action or to get political cover for eventually backing a U.S. war.

However, many nations hoped that an ultimatum by the United Nations would force Iraq to readmit U.N. weapons inspectors. The inspectors, responsible for accounting for Iraq's nuclear, chemical, biological and ballistic weapons, were pulled out of Iraq in December 1998 on the eve of a U.S.-British bombing raid, and have not been allowed to return.

"It's clear for me that the United Nations has to act," said Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, whose country has a seat on the Security Council. "The question is which way to act. I hope for a peaceful outcome of this."

Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, said, "President Bush has clearly decided to take the issue once again back to the Security Council. That, in our view, is an important decision."

'A REGIME THAT HAS LOST ITS LEGITIMACY'

Bush, in a blunt speech to the 190-nation General Assembly, urged the United Nations to force Iraq to disarm, and said action was inevitable if Baghdad failed to do so.

"My nation will work with the U.N. Security Council to meet our common challenge," Bush said. "If Iraq's regime defies us again, the world must move deliberately, decisively to hold Iraq to account."

"We will work with the U.N. Security Council for the necessary resolutions. But the purposes of the United States should not be doubted," he added. "The Security Council resolutions will be enforced, the just demands of peace and security will be met, or action will be unavoidable and a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has spoken out against a war, opened the assembly session by warning against unilateral action. But he also said that the "Security Council must face its responsibilities" if Iraqi defiance continued.

Iraq responded immediately. Its U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, called Bush's speech "the longest series of fabrications that has ever been told by a leader of a nation."

Both Bush and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw spoke of resolutions in the plural, suggesting that proposals by French President Jacques Chirac may prevail.

France wants to give Iraq three weeks to accept the weapons inspectors without conditions. A second resolution would follow to approve the use of force.

'GET THE INSPECTORS BACK IN'

"The Security Council should then decide measures to be taken without excluding any option," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told a news conference in New York.

But Villepin did not push for the removal of Saddam from power. "The clear priority today is the struggle against proliferation and to get the inspectors back in," he said.

Straw compared the current discussions in the Security Council with the "staged approach" after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990 that led to the Gulf War five months later.

The council immediately imposed stringent sanctions, and in November 1990 adopted a resolution authorizing the use of "all necessary measures" to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait if they did not leave by Jan. 15, 1991. The vote then was 12-2, with China casting an abstention.

A council resolution must have nine votes in favor and no veto from any of its five permanent members -- Britain, France, Russia, China and the United States. The other 10 council members are: Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Guinea, Ireland, Mauritius, Mexico, Norway, Singapore and Syria.

Russia, Iraq's closest ally on the council, so far has not given any sign it would support force against Baghdad. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov is expected to emphasize in his speech on Friday the importance of U.N. decisions.

PHOTO CAPTION

President Bush addresses the 57th meeting of the United Nations General assembly September 12, 2002 at U.N. headquarters in New York. Bush, opposed by many allies and Arab states, on Thursday took his case for tough action against Iraq to the United Nations, demanding the World body act to force Baghdad to disarm. (Jeff Christensen/Re