The U.S. Congress gave President George W. Bush the go-ahead on Friday for a possible war with Iraq as American planners worked on how U.S.-led coalition forces might transfer power to Iraqi civilians for a democratic transition in a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. Despite the strong congressional authorisation for military action against Iraq, Washington faced demands at the United Nations for compromises on its stand over Iraq, which U.S. and U.N. officials expect to happen next week.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan believes most U.N. members prefer a French approach of two resolutions rather than one to approve the use of force as the United States wants.

Iraq said on Friday it was ready to receive U.N. arms inspectors on October 19 but ignored demands from chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix on how to facilitate unrestricted access to suspected weapons sites.

Responding to a letter on Tuesday from Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iraq said it agreed with a statement issued after the two U.N. officials met Baghdad's arms experts in Vienna last week and their briefing to the U.N. Security Council.

But Iraq's letter from Iraqi General Amir al-Saadi, a presidential adviser, who headed Baghdad's delegation in Vienna, mentioned none of the specifics Blix had ElBaradei put on paper summarising agreements from the Vienna meeting. Those include conditions for interviewing Iraqi officials or scientists and U-2 spy flights.

BUSH SCORES MAJOR VICTORY

Handing Bush a major victory, the Democratic-led Senate voted 77-23 for a war powers resolution negotiated between the White House and congressional leaders backing possible use of force to rid Iraq of suspected weapons of mass destruction and possibly oust Saddam. The Republican-led House passed it by a vote of 296-133 on Thursday.

Talk of postwar planning emerged in the wake of the large bipartisan vote.

"It is the administration's intention, along with those of our allies and the international community, that if military force is used in Iraq, Saddam Hussein is removed, that Iraq not fall apart, for humanitarian reasons and for the stability of the region," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

"And so the administration is working to find ways to help achieve stability for Iraq and for the region. And we are considering a variety of ways to do so with our international partners, with the possibility of the United Nations, the possible role of U.S. civil affairs units," he said.

Iraq has declared defiantly it is ready to repel attack.

Warplanes from the U.S.-British coalition enforcing no-fly zones in Iraq struck a missile site southeast of Baghdad on Friday after what the Pentagon called stepped-up challenges from Saddam.

The Pentagon said Iraqi gunners had fired on coalition aircraft policing the zones 122 times since Saddam offered on Sept. 16 to let U.N. weapons inspectors return to his country, a sharply higher rate than usual.

U.N. WRANGLING

In Russia, two of the five veto-holding states in the U.N. Security Council held talks on Iraq.

Russian President Vladimir Putin refused a bid by British Prime Minister Tony Blair for support for a tough resolution and dismissed Blair's charge that Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction. But Putin, speaking after talks with Blair, left open the possibility of supporting an acceptable measure to ensure U.N. weapons inspectors could work properly in Iraq.

The United States wants the inspectors to return backed by the threat of force included in a hard-line U.N. resolution.

Britain is the only other member of the "Big Five" in the 15-nation Security Council to support the line taken by Bush, whose avowed aim of "regime change" in Iraq means toppling Saddam by force if necessary.

The Security Council is expected to hold an open debate on Iraq next week -- perhaps before considering the new resolution that Washington wants.

Political and diplomatic analysts said the congressional vote could make it easier for Bush to wrest a similar mandate from the United Nations, convincing many nations that war was inevitable.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Ministry Tareq Aziz, whose country said last month that U.N. arms inspectors could return but opposes any new guidelines for their work, said in Lebanon during a tour of Arab states to rally support that Baghdad was braced for war after the U.S. congressional vote.

Commercial shipping tenders showed on Friday the U.S. Navy was seeking two merchant ships to carry more armor and tracked vehicles from the United States and Europe to the Middle East.

PHOTO CAPTION

U.S. President George W. Bush speaks to guests during an event recognising American assistance to the people of Afghanistan at the White House on October 11. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang