WASHINGTON, Nov 9: US President Bush has hailed the UN Security Council’s unanimous vote that demands Iraqi disarmament and compliance with previous international mandates, but, at the same time, he exhorted the international body not to weaken in its resolve in the days ahead.

Bush indicated that peace or war was now solely in the hands of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who would use any unravelling of resolve to avoid compliance.

“The resolution approved presents the Iraqi regime with a test, a final test. Iraq must now, without delay or negotiations, fully disarm, welcome full inspections and fundamentally change the approach it has taken for more than a decade,” Bush said in remarks delivered in the White House Rose Garden moments after the vote on Friday.

“Iraq can be certain that the old game of cheat and retreat, tolerated at other times, will no longer be tolerated. Any act of delay or defiance will be an additional breach of Iraq’s international obligations and a clear signal that the Iraqi regime has once again abandoned the path of voluntary compliance.

“Now comes the hard part,” he added. “The Security Council must retain its unity and sense of purpose.”

Bush, speaking with Secretary of State Colin Powell at his shoulder, reiterated Iraq’s history of non-compliance with international mandates it agreed to following the 1991 Gulf War and the United States’ determination that such defiance ends.

“The only question for the Iraqi regime to decide is how” it is disarmed, he said. He would prefer voluntary disarmament, but was prepared to use military force if necessary.

“With the passage of this resolution, the world must not lapse into unproductive debates over whether specific instances of Iraqi non-compliance are serious,” he said and added that any Iraqi non-compliance was serious because such bad faith would show that Iraq had no intention of disarming.

“If we are to avert war, all nations must continue to pressure Saddam Hussein to accept this resolution and to comply with its obligations, and his obligations.

“America will be making only one determination: Is Iraq meeting the terms of the Security Council resolution or not,” he said.