The United States will take "some time" to thoroughly evaluate Iraq's arms declaration and judge whether Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was meeting UN disarmament demands, US President Mr George Bush said today.
Iraq said it had no weapons of mass destruction in a declaration that was demanded by a resolution last month.
The document was made public to international journalists shortly before it was due to be handed over to UN weapons inspectors in Baghdad. It is to be flown to New York for evaluation by Security Council member countries, including the United States.
"We will judge the declaration's honesty and completeness only after we have thoroughly examined it, and that will take some time," Mr Bush said in his weekly radio address.
"The declaration must be credible and accurate and complete, or the Iraqi dictator will have demonstrated to the world that once again he has chosen not to change his behavior."
The 11,807-page declaration, containing 352 pages of supplements, is supposed to give a full accounting of any past or present Iraqi programs involving biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.
It was shown to reporters at the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate in central Baghdad. Bush said Saddam bears the burden of proving compliance with UN demands that he dismantle programs to develop ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction, and of cooperating with UN arms inspectors who began work in Iraq last week.
"Compliance means bringing all requested information and evidence out into full view, to show that Iraq has abandoned the deceptions of the last decade," Mr Bush said.
"Any act of delay or defiance will prove that Saddam Hussein has not adopted the path of compliance, and he has rejected the path of peace." Bush said Iraq had so far failed to show the necessary "fundamental shift in practice and attitude" and he reiterated his vow to lead an international coalition to disarm Iraq if needed.
Iraqi officials said the arms declaration does describe some activities that were "dual-use". The US has asserted it has a solid basis to conclude Iraq possesses banned weapons. US officials said yesterday that Washington was expected to declare Iraq in "material breach" of the UN resolution because Baghdad said in its declaration it did not have weapons of mass destruction.
The administration may not cite the breach as an immediate cause for war, but could instead let UN weapons inspections continue while Bush courts members of a "coalition of the willing" to help strike Iraq if needed, officials said.