Iraq today wrote to chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix agreeing in principle to destroy its banned al-Samoud II missiles, Blix's office said.
The letter, signed by General Amir al-Saadi, chief scientific adviser to President Saddam Hussein, stated 'in principle that Iraq accepts the request for the destruction of the missiles and other items listed,' the office said.
Meanwhile, a draft report due to be presented to the United Nations by its Chief Weapons inspector, Hans Blix, says Iraq could have made greater efforts to disarm.
Mr Blix will present the report to the UN Security Council on Saturday. However the draft report has been seen by the BBC.
The BBC quotes him as saying Baghdad could have made greater efforts to locate proscribed weapons of mass destruction.
Iraq response to UN missile order awaited
This afternoon an Iraqi official said Baghdad would respond to a United Nations order to destroy its al-Samoud missiles within the next two days. The official gave no indication of what this response might be.
The UN's chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has set Saturday as the deadline for Iraq to begin destroying the missiles, whose range are said to exceed the limits allowed by the UN.
The UN weapons inspection agency has said that it has received no word yet from Baghdad on the destruction of the weapons.
Putin and Bush to work together on Iraq
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President George W Bush agreed this afternoon to work together to find a mutually acceptable solution on Iraq.
While discussing Iraq, both sides expressed a desire to speed up work in the UN Security Council for finding a mechanism for action that would guarantee the interests of the entire international community.
Members of the Council will meet later today for the first time since the publication of a joint US-Spanish-UK draft resolution claiming that Iraq has failed to disarm.
Two of the Council's permanent members, Russia and China, have again said that war can and should be avoided, following a meeting of their foreign ministers in Beijing.
Bush outlines vision of future
US President George W Bush said last night that in the event of a war against Iraq, the US would not allow what he called one brutal dictator to be replaced by another.
Speaking to an audience in Washington, Mr Bush outlined his vision of how the Middle East could look if President Saddam Hussein was overthrown and democracy was established in Iraq.
In what the White House described as major policy speech, Mr Bush said if force was to be used against Iraq its purpose would be to liberate the Iraqi people and to protect the American people.
He said the US had no intention of deciding the precise form of government for a new Iraq.
That would be up to the Iraqis themselves. But his remarks, delivered to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank, made it clear regime change is a key goal.
A new regime, he said, would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region.
Speaking as though conflict was inevitable, he said US forces would remain in Iraq as long as is necessary and not a day longer.
At about the same time the Iraqi President's interview with American journalist Dan Rather was airing on CBS television.
Saddam Hussein said if attacked it will be his duty to defend his country and the Iraqi people will not surrender. Asked if he expected to be killed himself, he said that would be decided by Allah.
US to lower terror attack threat level
In a separate development US officials have said that the US government is to lower the terror threat level back to yellow, which means a 'significant' risk of attack.
The colour-coded threat level had been raised on 7 February to orange, the second-highest level, after a number of intelligence reports suggested a 'high' possibility of terrorist attacks.
The officials declined to say why the threat level was being lowered.
