Iraq has mobilised to renew Saddam Hussein's mandate in Tuesday's referendum as Washington ordered regional commanders to sharpen war plans, dismissing as word play a new offer by Baghdad to allow UN inspectors unconditional access to its weapons facilities.Baghdad's ruling Baath party has monopolised the referendum in a defiant bid to show the United States the whole country backs the Iraqi strongman for seven more years in office.

No less than a 100 percent vote for Saddam who has ruled since 1979 through two wars and ruinous sanctions will do for the Baath party, which has covered the country with banners declaring undying love for the veteran leader, and organised thousands of meetings, parades and rallies.

"Yes for the greatest No," headlined Nabdh Al-Shabab (Pulse of Youth) over a giant portrait of the "greatest leader for the greatest people".

The "no", every Iraqi understands, is directed at US President George W. Bush and his plots to overthrow the regime accused of possessing and developing weapons of mass destruction, a charge denied vehemently by Baghdad.

In a Sunday evening session, cabinet ministers also swore allegiance anew to Saddam, who also doubles as Baath party secretary general, army commander and chairman of the command council.

"On Tuesday, the Iraqi people will dish out to the American administration a huge slap," said Iraq's influential Babel newspaper, run by Saddam's elder son Uday.

In the United States, The New York Times quoted US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday saying he had ordered regional commanders to rewrite war plans to make best use of precision weapons, intelligence and swift deployment.

The US military then "could begin combat operations on less notice and with far fewer troops than thought possible or even wise before the September 11 attacks," it said.

Iraq, warning other Arab nations they could be next if Washington attacked Baghdad, has stressed anew its willingness to allow UN weapons inspectors unconditional access to its facilities.

In a letter to chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and Mohammad el-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iraq clarified its agreement on the return of UN inspectors after a near four-year hiatus.

But the letter stopped short of promising inspectors free access to presidential palaces, and the US State Department dismissed it as word play.

Arab League chief Amr Mussa meanwhile arrived late Sunday in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar, a possible launchpad for US forces against Iraq, for coordination talks on Iraq as well as the Palestinian situation.

League sources said Mussa would discuss "the explosive situation in the Middle East amid growing chances of a military attack against Iraq as well as the constant deterioration of the situation in the Palestinian territories."

The Arab League is opposed to an invasion of Iraq, with or without the approval of the United Nations, fearing it will lead to regional instability.

Qatar however has signaled it would consider an eventual request from the United States to use its territory as a launchpad for a strike on Iraq, amid speculation that the United States was considering moving the entire Tampa, Florida-based Central Command to Qatar.

The five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- are engaged in tough talks over the framing of a resolution that would require Iraq to abandon its capability for acquiring nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

Bush wants a single new UN resolution creating a beefed-up inspections regime with unfettered access to alleged chemical, biological or nuclear weapons development sites and spelling out the consequences for non-compliance.

He has called for weapons inspectors to be held back until such a resolution is formulated, and, supported by Congress, has warned the US would not hesitate to use military action against Iraq, alone or with allies, in the absence of UN Security Council action.

Baghdad denies having weapons of mass destruction, which it agreed to destroy in 1991 after its troops were ousted from Kuwait in the Gulf War.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Iraqi boy looks at a large painting of President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, October 14, 2002. (Suhaib Salem/Reuter