Continuing the containment strategy, coupled with a tough weapons-inspection program, is one option.
They said their goal was to get United Nations backing for tough weapons inspections.
The administration's step followed six weeks of wrangling among the five veto-bearing members of the Council that did not yield agreement on linking a proposal for tough weapons inspections in Iraq with a threat of military force to back them up.
Iraq rejected a proposal by the United States and Britain for a Security Council resolution imposing tough weapons inspections, saying it would not accept any new rules for the work of United Nations inspectors. 1 The rejection could make it easier for the United States to argue its case for military action.
The United States continued to insist on a single resolution that would include both a tough weapons inspections regime and a strong enough threat of "consequences" to give the administration a legal basis to start a military attack on its own if it is dissatisfied with the Security Council's response to Iraqi violations exposed in the inspections.
His call came after Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Britain would be pressing for "much tougher" weapons inspections than the "defective" ones agreed to by Hans Blix, the head of the United Nations inspection group, and Baghdad officials in Vienna on Tuesday.
But neither Mr. Perricos nor Mr. Baute was ready to comment, based on the initial inspections, on the issue behind the months of American threats that led to the United Nations Security Council's action earlier this month in approving the tough new weapons-inspection mandate: whether Iraq still has banned weapons programs, or has abandoned them, as senior Iraqi officials have insisted.
In addition to a tough assault weapons ban, he should be pushing to bar sales of high-capacity ammunition clips and to close the loophole that allows felons and other buyers to evade background checks at gun shows.
During his years as governor, they pointed out, Mr. Florio pushed through the nation's toughest assault weapon ban, cut insurance rates by 20percentt and solidified his reputation as a protector of the environment.
Bush administration officials have said the United States might act on its warnings of military action against Iraq if it commits even a single serious breach of its obligations under the tough new weapons-inspection mandate passed by the Security Council last month.
