WASHINGTON, November 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - As Iraq appeared to be setting the stage Sunday, November 10, to accept UN Resolution 1441 despite its "unfairness," U.S. officials said that Washington does not require UN permission to act against Iraq.

"The United Nations can meet and discuss, but we don't need their permission" to act if Iraq fails to comply with the UN-mandated weapons inspection program, White House chief of staff Andrew Card told NBC television.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice also hit that point on other talk shows, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The hard line U.S. stance came as Baghdad Sunday took positive steps to accept UN Resolution 1441 despite its "unfairness," saying the international community thwarted U.S. plans to attack Iraq.

While imposing harsh arms inspection terms on Baghdad, the resolution unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council Friday, November 8, foiled Washington's attempts to secure UN approval for an automatic recourse to force against Baghdad, a government newspaper said.

State television reported that President Saddam Hussein called an emergency session of Iraq's parliament to debate the resolution.

"President Saddam Hussein has ordered the convening of an urgent session of the National Assembly to discuss Security Council Resolution 1441 issued on November 8, debate the position (that should be taken) on it and submit its conclusions to the (ruling) Revolution Command Council," it said.

The television did not say when parliament would meet. It also aired footage of Saddam chairing the weekly cabinet session but the resolution was not among the topics reported to have been discussed during the meeting.

"Despite the adoption of the bad and unfair Resolution 1441, on which our historic leadership will pronounce in the coming days, the growing popular Arab, European and world opposition to aggressive U.S. schemes against Iraq ... exposed the wicked U.S.-British plot against Iraq and thwarted its first stage," the daily Al-Jumhuriya wrote earlier Sunday.

That first stage was the planned "automatic recourse to force and aggression against Iraq," the paper said in a front-page editorial.

The U.S. scheme was also aborted thanks to "the realization of most permanent and non-permanent (Security Council) members of the long-term objectives (of the United States) targeting the entire Arab nation and all Muslims," it said.

Al-Jumhuriya's commentary echoed remarks by Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, who said in Cairo Saturday that by adopting Resolution 1441, the international community had "aborted a decision by the United States to use force against Iraq."

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal later told an Arab Foreign Ministers meeting in the Egyptian capital that Baghdad had accepted the resolution after obtaining assurances from Security Council member Syria that the U.S.-drafted document does not foresee automatic recourse to military action.

State-run papers in Baghdad front-paged a terse report by the official INA news agency that the Iraqi leadership was "quietly studying" the resolution and would "issue the appropriate signal concerning it in the coming days."

The report said Iraq's leadership was mulling over the resolution despite the fact that it is "bad and unfair," leaving the door open for Baghdad to accept the new tough inspection terms.

Baghdad's official response will probably not come before a couple more days, an Iraqi political analyst told AFP.

The Iraqi leadership will presumably not give its verdict on Resolution 1441 before sounding out both fellow Arab states - which means awaiting Sabri's return from Cairo - and also undertaking "intensive consultations with friendly countries," he said.

A Baghdad-based Western diplomat agreed that the Iraqi government could be expected to take a reasonable amount of time within the seven-day deadline it was given to ponder and undertake consultations on such "a sensitive and important matter."

But indications are that Baghdad will end up accepting the resolution, he said on condition of anonymity. After all, it would not be the first time that Iraq acquiesces to what it perceives as "bad and unfair" terms imposed by the Security Council.

Al-Jumhuriya hinted that the new disarmament resolution might be used by Iraq as a stepping stone to secure a lifting of UN sanctions in force since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Baghdad's consent to the return of UN arms inspectors, and statements by former arms inspectors confirming Iraq's contention that it is free of mass destruction weapons, also contributed to exposing the Bush administration's "hostile intentions toward Iraq," the paper maintained.

The U.S. administration is seeking pretexts to attack Iraq and "perpetuate the unfair embargo" imposed on it, it said.