British leader Tony Blair  flew home on Saturday from a council of war with George W. Bush and forecast that divided world opinion would rally behind a new U.N. resolution that might authorize an attack on Iraq. "I believe that there will be a second resolution," the prime minister told reporters on the plane back to London after his crucial meeting with the U.S. president. Blair used his visit to the White House to make the case for continuing along the United Nations  route over Iraq.

Bush appeared less enthusiastic at a joint news conference on Friday, saying a new resolution should not be used as a delaying tactic.

The hawkish U.S.-British position is not shared around the world and Europe is deeply divided on Iraq.

Blair said journalists' suggestions that there was also a U.S.-British rift were "nonsense."

His aides said Bush privately supported the idea of a second resolution but did not want to give an impression of weakness to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein .

Blair and Bush said the Iraq crisis was entering its endgame, with a conclusion coming in weeks rather than months.

"I think it will be very plain to people whether Saddam is cooperating or not in the next few weeks," Blair said on his way home. "If he does not comply, we have to act."

He said he and Bush had discussed the possible wording of a second resolution. He said they had also talked about the details of a possible military campaign, but did not elaborate.

Britain and the United States have repeatedly said they do not believe Iraq is cooperating with November's U.N. resolution 1441 requiring it to disarm.

"Even now we're not at war with Iraq. Conflict is not inevitable if Saddam complies," Blair insisted.

Diplomats at the United Nations said they expected Washington to push for a new resolution in about two weeks, if it looked as if such a measure might be successful.

Iraq has invited chief U.N. arms inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei to visit Baghdad before their next report to the Security Council on February 14.

The inspectors, in a letter to Iraq, have not flatly turned down the invitation, tentatively scheduled for February 7 or 8. But Blix reiterated on Saturday he wanted Iraq first to give way on U.N. inspectors' demands for unrestricted flights by spy planes over Iraq and for private interviews with Iraqi experts.

Blair said Baghdad's invitation was part of a long-established pattern of playing for time. Bush dismissed it as a deception and a charade.

WARSHIPS IN SUEZ CANAL, TROOPS POUR INTO GULF

The U.S. forces pouring into the Gulf could be ready by mid-February to launch an invasion. British forces now on their way to the region will need a little more time.

The aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the helicopter carrier Ocean, part of a 16-ship British naval flotilla dispatched to the Gulf, entered the Suez Canal on Saturday. Eight other British naval ships headed south through the canal on Saturday.

The influential military in Turkey, expected to be the launchpad for the northern arm of a pincer attack on Iraq, has firmly pointed its reluctant government toward supporting the United States in any war, Turkish newspapers said on Saturday.

Iraq showed no sign of wavering from its denials that it possesses or is developing nuclear, chemical or biological arms.

"We have said many times that we do not have weapons of mass destruction and we are not intending to produce any such weapons whatsoever," Abdul Tawab Mullah Hwaish, deputy prime minister and minister of military industrialization, said on Saturday.

"We challenge Bush and Blair to send to Iraq whoever they want to verify there are no weapons of mass destruction."

Before he reports to the council on February 14, Blix will assemble a panel of experts to evaluate a suspected violation by Iraq in testing and perhaps deploying long-range missiles.

Iraq, according to its own declaration, has developed, tested and supplied to its army a liquid-fueled missile called Al Samoud 2 and a solid propellant missile called Al Fatah .

Each has a range in excess of the permitted 150 km (93 miles).

U.N. experts searched at least 10 sites in Iraq on Saturday.

RESISTANCE TO WAR

Bush and Blair are meeting opposition at home and abroad for the idea of a pre-emptive strike against Iraq without explicit U.N. backing.

To get another resolution would require persuading France and Russia to back it. Each holds veto power on the 15-member Security Council, and both want to give inspectors more time.

Secretary of State Colin Powell  is to present to the Security Council on Wednesday what Washington says is evidence that Iraq has maintained prohibited weapons.

Syria on Friday asked that Iraq be allowed to address the Council after Powell. Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov backed the request, saying Iraq was entitled under the U.N. charter to do so. "It's their sovereign right," he told reporters.

Diplomats raised the possibility of Baghdad's deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, coming to New York to speak.

PHOTO CAPTION

President George W. Bush  answers a question during a press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair  at the White House, January 31, 2003. Bush said the United States would fight efforts to delay a decision on Iraq, insisting on bringing the disarmament standoff to a head 'in a matter of weeks and not months.' (Larry Downing/Reuter