WASHINGTON, December 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraq's declaration on its weapons of mass destruction represents a material breach of U.N. resolution 1441, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday, December 19.

Powell delivered the U.S. government's long-awaited response to the 12,000-page declaration, as the building crisis over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction took an ominous turn, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"It should be obvious that the pattern of systematic holes and gaps in Iraq's declaration is not the result of accidents or editing oversights or technical mistakes," said Powell, quoted by AFP.

"These are material omissions that, in our view, constitute another material breach," he added.

The resolution requires Iraq to disarm and provide a full report of its past programs allegedly designed to produce nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

Powell warned that the world would not wait for ever for Iraq to comply with U.N. resolution 1441, warning that Iraq would be disarmed by force if necessary - in a clear reference to the expected U.S. war on the Arab state.

"This declaration fails totally to move us in the direction of a peaceful solution," Powell claimed.

Threatening of war, Powell said Baghdad is "close to the day when it will have to face [grave] consequences."

"If war comes, the only thing I would say about the nature of that conflict is that it will be done in a way that would minimize the loss of life, and it will be done to be accomplished in as swift a manner as possible," he claimed.

"The declaration totally fails to address what we had learned about Iraq's prohibited weapons programs before the inspectors were effectively forced out in 1998."

He added that the United States was disappointed that Iraq had not taken its last chance to declare fully its weapons of mass destructions programs "but we are not deceived."

"This declaration is consistent with the Iraqi regime's past practices. We have seen this game again and again; an attempt to sow confusion to buy time, hoping the world will lose interest."

Powell said the United States would work over the coming weeks with U.N. inspection teams in Iraq, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its security council partners to find out how best to enforce Iraqi compliance.

He said inspectors should give high priority to conducting interviews with scientists and other witnesses outside Iraq.

He said that U.N. resolution 1441 obliges Iraq to allow the questioning of scientists requested by the inspectors.

Powell said that Washington was working with chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix to decide on the necessary mechanisms to accomplish this important mission.

"Iraq is obligated - it is their obligation to make such witnesses available to the inspectors," Powell said and also called on inspectors to intensify their search for banned weapons in Iraq.

The United States has reportedly set the last week of January as the deadline to ask the U.N. Security Council to authorize the use of force against Iraq if it is in violation of resolution 1441.

Powell said that American experts who scrutinized the Iraqi weapons declaration found it to be incomplete and incomprehensive.

When compared with information we have, the experts found discrepancies within the Iraqi declaration, according to Powell.

He added that the United States agrees with U.N. weapons inspectors that the Iraqi declaration was full of repeated information and even complete paragraphs from reports prepared by some U.N. agencies.

Powell claimed that before their departure from Iraq four years ago, the inspectors had information that Iraq could produce the anthrax, but the weapons declaration failed to account for that.

He expressed Washington’s satisfaction with the Turkish government's cooperation and pledged to take Turkish interests and concerns into consideration.

In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw accused Iraq of committing a "flagrant violation" of the U.N. disarmament resolution, but he added that this did not make war against Baghdad inevitable.

Repeating his earlier charge that Iraq had omitted key information from the weapons declaration it handed in to the U.N. on December 7, Straw said: "It is a very serious failure to comply and a clear warning has to go out to Iraq that they now have to cooperate fully with the U.N. and its inspectors as is required of them by the international community."

He said that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein "is hoping that the international community will blink first and in the end turn away from his flagrant violation of the obligations imposed upon him by international law."

"We are not going to blink first," he said.

War was not inevitable, but Iraq had pulled one "trigger" and "they now, in a sense, have their finger on the other trigger," Straw claimed.

"The choice now as to whether this issue is resolved peacefully or the international community is forced to solve it by military action is a choice before Saddam Hussein," Straw said.

And in Paris, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Iraq's weapons declaration contained what he described as "gray areas".

"There are gray areas in the Iraqi declaration, but we have confidence that Mr. Blix and Mr. El-Baradei will clear them up," the minister said at a news conference with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu.

France believes the U.N. inspections which restarted November 27 after a four-year hiatus, were conducted in good conditions, and that it is essential that they continue, he added.

"If there turn out to be any serious omissions ... you know the process defined under resolution 1441. Based on a report from Mr. Blix, the Security Council will examine all options, including the use of force," said De Villepin.

But French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie stressed that it was up to U.N. arms inspectors and not Security Council members to decide whether there were any omissions in the Iraqi declaration.

"It is for inspectors ... and those who work on the ground to say what could be missing, and what could be imprecise in the report," Alliot-Marie said in Kuwait City at the end of a three-nation Gulf tour.

Mohammed Salman, Iraq's deputy ambassador to the United Nations told reporters, "Iraq is not in a material breach. This is the interpretation of the U.S. and does not represent the interpretation of the whole international community."

"The U.S. made it clear that the matter is not disarmament, but to change the legitimate government of Iraq," he added.