WASHINGTON, September 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Despite mounting international objection to a unilateral U.S. attack on Iraq, including from France and Germany, remarks by the U.S. Vice President, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor indicated Sunday, September 8, U.S. insistence to bomb Iraq.

Events over the "next few weeks" will decide whether military action is taken against Iraq, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday. The vice president told NBC television that military action remained a possibility, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

"It will depend a lot on the course of what happens over these next few weeks.

The president (George W. Bush) has got a major speech before the United Nations on Thursday, September 12. It is a very important event.

"There should not be any doubt in anybody's mind that this president is absolutely determined to deal with this threat and do whatever is necessary."

Cheney said the administration wanted a vote in Congress in October, if possible, on action against Iraq.

In another attempt to try to justify the U.S. attack on Iraq, Cheney said the United States had intercepted a shipment headed for Iraq containing equipment that Saddam Hussein could use to build a nuclear weapon.

"He is now trying to acquire the equipment that he needs" to enhance low grade uranium in order to build a nuclear weapon, Cheney told NBC's Meet The Press.

"We have been able to intercept," Cheney said. "We know of a particular shipment, we intercepted that."

Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security advisor added Sunday that the United States was aware of Iraq receiving shipments of "high-quality aluminum tools that are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs."

She declined, however, to pinpoint how close Iraq was to developing nuclear capability. Cheney also said that the rest of the world could not be certain if Iraq has a nuclear bomb.

"You will get different estimates about precisely how close he is," she told CNN's Late Edition.

"We know that he has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon. And we know that when the [UN] inspectors assessed this after the Gulf War, he was far, far closer to a crude nuclear device than anybody thought, maybe six months from a crude nuclear device.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that Bush remains ready to act unilaterally against Iraq even as he seeks international support to bring down Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Powell also told Fox News television that the president would probably go to Congress before the end of the year to seek support for military action against Iraq.

He said that no matter the reaction to Bush's speech on Iraq to the UN General Assembly this week "the president will retain all of his authority and options to act in a way that may be appropriate for us to act unilaterally to defend ourselves."

Bush is to address the United Nations in New York on Thursday, following weeks of international debate about whether the United States should strike Iraq alone. Many allies oppose unilateral U.S. action, AFP said.

Powell declined to elaborate on what Bush would tell the assembly, saying only that Bush will underline the Iraq's repeated violations of UN resolutions. "The United Nations should feel offended. The United Nations should feel that something should be done."

"I would be surprised if we have not indicated to Congress before the end of the year what it is we will need from them in order to pursue whatever policy choice the president settles upon," he said.

When asked about members of Congress that have voiced reservations about invading Iraq in recent weeks, including prominent Republicans, Powell said: "The president is considering all of these things, and we spent a great deal of time talking about the political options, the diplomatic options, the military options."

Powell, who spent Friday and Saturday with Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the presidential retreat Camp David, said both leaders agreed that "to do nothing is no longer an option."

When asked about the recent objections to U.S. unilateral action voiced by France, Germany and Russia, Powell said that they have the same intelligence as the United States and Britain.

"I don't think you'll find any of these leaders who will say to you right now that Saddam Hussein is not a threat," he said.

"What they're saying is ... let's find a way short of conflict to solve the problem."

France and Germany are both opposed to any unilateral U.S. attack on Iraq, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac said Saturday, September 7, after a summit meeting in the German city of Hanover, AFP said.

"We are fully in agreement on four points: No unilateral action by the United States; a solution which goes through the United Nations Security Council; the unconditional return of UN arms inspectors to Iraq; and no change in the aims" over Iraq, said Schroeder at a joint press conference with Chirac.

Schroeder's reference to "no change in aims" alluded to a recent switch in the U.S. position on Iraq, which went from demanding the return of UN weapons inspectors, a position many countries agree on, to the much more controversial stance of demanding the overthrow or removal of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his regime.

Chirac said: "France believes that any unilateral solution should be ruled out.

"Iraq must accept, in compliance with the demand of the United Nations and its secretary-general, the unconditional return of inspectors," he said.