Iraqis went to the polls in a massive show of support for President Saddam Hussein and in defiance of US efforts to topple the regime, as Washington remained at loggerheads with other Security Council members over a new UN resolution on arms inspections.Iraqis turned out in their thousands for a referendum which gives Saddam Hussein, the sole candidate, seven more years in office.

"By voting I've fired my gun at the head of (US President George W.) Bush and his gang," said 67-year-old Abdul Majid Janabi, who had queued since dawn at one of the 1,905 voting centres throughout Iraq.

At a centre in Saddam City, a US flag had been laid out in front of the ballot boxes obliging voters to trample it, while one box even had Saddam's photo stuck on it.

A young woman voted with her blood after filling a syringe from her arm and several others followed her example, chanting "with our soul, with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for you Saddam."

The regime's number two Ezzat Ibrahim, head of the committee supervising the referendum, urged people to say "Yes, Yes," to Saddam, branding Bush a "criminal" and accusing his administration of "cheating and deceiving the American people."

With the countdown to war seemingly already begun in Washington, the referendum has become not just the renewal of Saddam's mandate, but a major tool of defiance against the omnipotent superpower.

Washington and Paris also held firm to their disagreement over what the United Nations should do to force Iraq to disarm, in spite of predictions by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the Security Council's five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- were close to consensus on a resolution.

"What I want is a firm resolution that says, 'You disarm,' and an inspection regime that is there, not for the sake of inspectors, but is there to achieve the objective of disarming Mr. Saddam Hussein," Bush said.

"In order to make sure the resolution has got any kind of credence with Mr. Hussein, there has to be a consequence," Bush said, later adding that the "military option is my last choice."

Bush countered concerns, expressed notably in the British press Tuesday in the wake of the devastating attack in Bali, that Iraq is diverting attention from the "war on terrorism."

"We will fight if need be the war on terror on two fronts. We've got plenty of capacity to do so," he declared, adding, "Iraq is a part on the war on terror."

In Paris, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin reiterated his nation's stance that a military strike against Iraq must be a last resort and that such action must have UN backing.

France, which is holding out for a two-step UN resolution that would call for a vote before any military strike, "cannot accept an intervention" in Iraq "that would not be a last resort and that would not follow the path of law," Raffarin said.

The United States has accused Saddam of secretly developing nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and has openly voiced its willingness to force Saddam from power.

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 noncompliance.

His administration has blocked the return of UN arms inspectors until the new resolution is passed even though Baghdad has said they can resume their work.

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

Iraqi painter Mohammed Khaleel holds a portrait depicting president Saddam Hussein along with a hawk and the Lion of Babylon in Baghdad, Monday, Oct. 14, 2002. At the bottom is a representation of the U.S. flag with skulls instead of stars and a Statue of Liberty holding a dagger and a swastika. Iraqi painters are preparing portraits of president Saddam Hussein for an exhibition to mark referendum day on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2002, when Iraqi will vote yes or no on re-electing Saddam. The only potential suspense in Tuesday's vote is whether the two-decade Iraqi leader will beat his last showing: 99.96 percent.(AP Photo/Jassim Mohammed)