LAJES (Azores Islands), March 16: US President George Bush said that Monday was the deadline to see if diplomacy could find common ground on the Iraq crisis.

“Tomorrow is the day that we will determine whether or not diplomacy can work,” Mr Bush said at a press conference with the prime ministers of Britain, Spain and Portugal after a summit here on the Iraq crisis.

Asked by a reporter if that meant that the diplomatic window to get Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to disarm would be closed on Monday, Mr Bush replied: “That’s what I’m saying.”

“We concluded that tomorrow is a moment of truth for the world,” Mr Bush added.

The US president said Saddam Hussein would have to disarm or would be disarmed by force.

Bush, Blair and Aznar, co-sponsors of a new resolution on Iraq, agreed the Iraqi leader had sealed his fate by flouting a Nov 8 disarmament ultimatum that promised “serious consequences” for non-compliance.

“This is what we agreed in Resolution 1441: This was his final opportunity. He had to disarm unconditionally. Serious consequences would follow if he failed to do so,” said Mr Blair.

Mr Blair insisted, “now is the moment to decide, whether we meant it or simply whether we are going to drag out this process forever.”

“We have reached the point of decision,” said Mr Blair, who has seen an unprecedented revolt in his governing Labour party over his unstinting backing for Mr Bush’s plans to launch a war to disarm the Iraqi president.

“We make a final appeal for there to be that strong, unified message on behalf of the international community that lays down a clear ultimatum to Saddam Hussein that authorizes force if he continues to defy the will of the whole of the international community,” said Mr Blair.

French President Jacques Chirac, whose opposition to war has won plaudits at home but unleashed a wave of anti-French sentiment in the United States, said earlier he could accept giving UN arms inspectors a 30-day deadline in Iraq.

He told CNN in an interview that France would be satisfied if the inspectors — charged with assuring Iraq has no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons under UN resolutions laid down after the first Gulf war in 1991 — had another month to work.

The US president, who has vowed to bypass the United Nations if it fails to disarm Iraq, and called the Security Council said he would go back to the United Nations to seek cooperation on rebuilding Iraq if war is declared.

“If military force is required, we will quickly seek new Security Council resolutions to encourage broad participation in the process of helping the Iraqi people to build a free Iraq,” he said.—Agencies