HIGHLIGHTS No Other Country, Including Close Ally Britain, Joined Washington in Declaring a Material Breach|| War Jitters Drive gold to its Highest Price in Almost Six Years on Thursday|| Blix to Report to U.N. Security Council Again in mid-January & to Give a Lengthy Report on Jan. 27||Powell Presses UN Weapons Inspectors for greater efforts to interview Iraqi Arms Scientists Outside the Country|| Washington Says War Is Not Imminent But Powell Reminds World U.S. Military Units Are Being Deployed in the Middle East|| Iraq Says Charges Are False & Stands Ready to Supply UN Inspectors with Clarifications||STORYThe United States on Thursday declared Iraq was in "material breach" of a U.N. resolution by failing to disclose its weapons of mass destruction, increasing the risk of military action.

But no other country, including close ally Britain, joined Washington in declaring a material breach, an ominous legal term that could be used to trigger war against Saddam Hussein. Iraq immediately rejected the charges as baseless.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the next few weeks would be crucial in judging Iraq's compliance with the tough new resolution aimed at disarming it of any weapons of mass destruction. He said if Baghdad continued its uncooperative behavior "we're not going to find a peaceful solution to this problem."

A material breach was first declared by Washington's U.N. ambassador, John Negroponte, to the Security Council on Thursday in an assessment of the arms declaration Iraq had to submit under the new resolution.

Negroponte said Iraq was lying when it reported that it had no "ongoing weapons of mass destruction programs."
"These are material omissions which in our view constitute another material breach," he said.

Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix bolstered Negroponte's analysis, telling the council in his initial report that Iraq's declaration, submitted on Dec. 7, did not include data on some chemical and biological agents, such as anthrax, that inspectors wanted clarified.

"An opportunity was missed in the declaration to give a lot of evidence," Blix said.

But he said he had no evidence to prove Iraq still had weapons of mass destruction and challenged countries, particularly the United States, to back up their charges.

Powell said there would be no peaceful solution to the crisis in Iraq if the Baghdad government "continues its pattern of non-cooperation, its pattern of deception, its pattern of dissembling, its pattern of lying.

"Then we're not going to find a peaceful solution to this problem," he told a news conference. "The Iraqi declaration ... totally fails to meet the resolution's requirements."

INTENSIFIED INSPECTIONS

War jitters drove gold to its highest price in almost six years on Thursday, oil hit a near three-month peak and Wall Street stocks slid as nervous financial markets reacted to the U.S. evaluation of Iraq's report.

Blix is to report to the U.N. Security Council again in mid-January and will give a lengthy report on Jan. 27. His assessment is crucial in any determination the council may make in assessing a material breach.

Powell said "the coming weeks" should include more study of the Iraqi declaration, intensified work by U.N. inspectors inside Iraq as well as greater efforts by them to interview Iraqi arms scientists outside the country.

U.S. insistence on spiriting scientists and their families outside the country is considered absurd by the other 14 Security Council members, who note the inspectors are unarmed. But should Baghdad balk, diplomats say, the United States could add that to its list of Iraqi violations of the resolution.

Both Negroponte and Powell said war was not imminent but Powell reminded reporters that U.S. military units were being deployed in the Middle East.

Some 100,000 troops could be in the Gulf region by February. U.S. officials told Reuters that 50,000 ground troops were being notified to be ready to move there early in the new year if Bush gives the order.

There are 60,000 U.S. troops in the region, more than half of them Navy and Air Force personnel aboard aircraft carriers and at air bases in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.

Britain said more than falsifications or omissions in the document were needed under the Nov. 8 council resolution 1441 for a material breach. And Russia said only the council, and not just the United States, could declare a breach.

Under terms of the resolution, omissions in the declaration Iraq was required to submit on its weapon of mass destruction was not enough to declare a material breach.

IRAQ SAYS CHARGES BASELESS

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, while joining the United States in sharply criticizing Iraq, noted that there also had to be a "failure by Iraq at any time to comply with and cooperate fully" with the resolution.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Iraq so far had treated inspections as "a bit of a game of hide and seek." He told the Guardian newspaper that if the declaration turns out to be false, then he (Saddam Hussein) is in breach."

But Iraq said the charges were baseless and that Baghdad had been asked to give voluminous documents of all past arms programs and related civilian goods.

"The United States made it clear that the matter is not disarmament but to change the legitimate government of Iraq," said Muhammed Ali, Iraq's deputy Iraqi U.N. ambassador.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, also told the council that Iraq's declaration on its nuclear program contained nothing new compared to statements in 1998.

He said Iraq needed to provide answers and evidence regarding Iraq's reported purchase of aluminum tubes, which can be used for a variety of weapons purposes.

France's ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere told the council and reporters that the analysis by Blix "doesn't lift the doubts about the possible continuation by Iraq of prohibited activities since December 1998" when arms inspectors left the country and before they resumed work last month.

Russia's U.N. ambassador Sergei Lavrov said it was not up to one member to declare a material breach and said the arms inspectors should not be "pushed into a direction that they themselves do not believe is advisable."

In Baghdad, presidential adviser Amir al-Saadi told a news conference that Iraq was not worried by accusations that its weapons declaration contained little new.

And in Paris, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, said, "The United States is looking for a pretext for an attack

PHOTO CAPTION

Chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix (R) and Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrive to address a closed session of the Security Council at the United Nations in New York, December 19, 2002 (Jeff Christensen/Re