By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- Attending a Security Council meeting on terrorism January 20, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell used the occasion to warn Iraq that "time is running out" for it to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction and reminded the council that it must not shrink from its responsibilities.

In his formal speech to the council and during a brief press conference afterward, Powell stressed that both Iraq and the 15-nation Security Council have obligations and responsibilities under resolution 1441, which was unanimously adopted in November 2002. Those responsibilities, the secretary said, will be a key issue when the chief weapons inspectors of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) make the first major report required by the resolution on January 27.

Powell emphasized that neither the report nor the discovery of empty chemical warheads in Iraq five days ago is the starting point of the effort to disarm Iraq.

"This is not the beginning," he said. "They have known for years how many chemical weapons warheads they have. ... The inspectors had to discover another cache of them last week and then suddenly the Iraqis say, 'oh, by the way, we have found four more.'"

"They know what they have. It is their obligation to come forward. We cannot let them dribble this information and dribble these items out for as long as they choose to in an effort to thwart the will of the international community," Powell said.

Security Council resolution 1441 "lays out clearly Iraq has an obligation to provide to the inspectors all the information that they need to do their job. Iraq has an obligation to have submitted a complete, accurate declaration. Iraq has an obligation to create conditions within Iraq so that the inspectors can do their work and not guess at where things might be," the secretary said.

"I want there to be no mistake about this: time is running out. There is no question Iraq continues not to understand the seriousness of the position that it is in. This is the time for it to realize that we will not just allow Iraq to frustrate the will of the United Nations," Powell said.

The secretary said that Iraq's pledge to the chief weapons inspectors to be more helpful and appoint a team to look for other chemical weapons is "just more of the same."

"Only under pressure does Iraq respond," Powell said.

Iraq could avoid a war by a "very simple matter ... come clean" about its weapons of mass destruction, he said.

"We will anxiously await the chief inspectors' report next Monday and then the council has to examine Iraq's behavior against the requirements of 1441 and make a judgment as to what should happen next," he said.

Powell said that he had discussed Iraq with the foreign ministers attending the terrorism session and expected to continue talks at the luncheon being hosted by France, which is president of the council for the month of January. He said the United States is anxiously awaiting the January 27 report.

"I assure you in the days after (January 27) there will be many conversations between me and my colleagues to determine what the steps will be to make a judgment as to whether or not Iraq is disarming," the secretary said.

"If Iraq is disarming then there may be a solution ... but if Iraq is not disarming the United Nations cannot simply turn its head away and ignore this lack of respect Iraq has for the United Nations and international community," he said.

In his formal speech to the Security Council Powell said, "We must not shrink from our duties and responsibilities when the material comes before us next week."

"We cannot fail to take the action that may be necessary because we are afraid of what others might do. We cannot be shocked into impotence because we are afraid of the difficult choices that are ahead of us," he said.

"We have much difficult work in the days ahead," Powell continued, "but we cannot shrink from the responsibilities of dealing with a regime that has gone about development, acquiring, stocking of weapons of mass destruction; that committed terrorist acts against its neighbors and its own people; trampled human rights of its people and its neighbors.

"So however difficult the road ahead may be ... we must not shrink from the need to travel down that road. Hopefully there will be a peaceful solution, but if Iraq does not come into full compliance we must not shrink from the responsibility that we set before ourselves when we adopted 1441," he said.