The Government has responded to the report by Dr Blix, saying it is for the UN Security Council to decide whether the arms inspectors in Iraq should be given more time.
A spokesman for the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said it was a matter of concern that Iraq had not yet fully complied with the United Nations.
After the US and Britain set a 10-day deadline for full-compliance by Iraq with resolutions requiring it to fully disarm, the spokesman declined to specify what position the Government would adopt were the US and Britain to attack Iraq in the absence of a new resolution. It would be "better for everyone" if there was agreement on a such a resolution, he said.
"The Government is not engaging in what-ifery," he said. "We will have to take a decision when the full parameters of that decision are known."
Fine Gael's spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Gay Mitchell, said there was no immediate need for war, adding that the work of the UN inspectors should continue. While Iraq was responding to the demands of the UN, it was doing so only "reluctantly and sluggishly".
"Fine Gael remains unequivocally opposed to any action against Iraq which is not duly sanctioned by the UN."
Labour's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Michael D Higgins, said the latest report provided "no support" for the advocates of unilateral military action. "It reinforces the need for the international community to provide the inspectors with every necessary resource needed to avert a catastrophic conflict," he said.