UPDATEThe Iraqi parliament will convene in emergency session on Monday to decide on a U.N. resolution to disarm Iraq, and Egypt said on Sunday Baghdad's position on the new text was positive. "The parliament will convene at 7 p.m. on Monday in accordance with a decision by President Saddam Hussein an Iraqi parliamentary source told Reuters.
"Parliament will take the necessary decision regarding the U.N. Security Council resolution," the source added.

In Cairo, Arab foreign ministers meeting in extraordinary session at the Arab League endorsed the toughly worded U.N. resolution but also called on Security Council members to ensure it could not be used as an automatic trigger for war.

Asked after the meeting about Iraq's likely response to the resolution, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said:
"The indications are positive and there was a general feeling during the meeting that the cooperation of Iraq with the inspectors will be instrumental in avoiding any military operation."

Iraqi television said Saddam had ordered parliament to discuss Friday's unanimous U.N. Security Council vote demanding unfettered access to sites suspected of being used to develop weapons of mass destruction.

U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told Iraq one false step in complying with the resolution would result in military action, her warning underlined by the partial disclosure of the U.S. invasion plans.

In a joint statement, Arab foreign ministers called on Security Council members who had given assurances to Syria -- the only Arab state on the Council -- that the resolution was not a pretext for war to ensure the new U.N. text was not used as an automatic trigger for military action.

"Arab countries utterly reject any strike against Iraq as a threat to all Arab countries' national security," they said.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara, whose country surprised the international community by backing the U.N. resolution, said it had "pushed the phantom of war into the distance for several weeks or several months."

Iraq has until November 15 to agree to the U.N. terms. Weapons inspectors are due to travel to Baghdad on November 18 to set up communications, transport and laboratories.

RICE WARNS IRAQ

Disarmament inspections originally started after Iraqi forces were expelled from neighboring Kuwait by a U.S.-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War. Inspectors withdrew in 1998 in a wrangle over access to Saddam's palaces.

Rice said Iraq would be held to a "zero tolerance" standard on arms inspections under the new resolution. Any breach would trigger serious consequences, she told Fox News Sunday.

"The next material breach by Saddam Hussein has got to have serious consequences. I think it's pretty clear what that may mean. The (U.S.) president has made no secret of the fact that he intends to use force if the Iraqis cannot be brought into compliance in other way," Rice said.

She said Bush reserved the right to use force without Security Council approval if Iraq violated the resolution. But Washington would initially discuss with the Council the consequences of any breach.

In Washington, officials said President Bush had approved plans for the invasion of Iraq if it failed to comply fully with the resolution.

The plan, based on the lessons learned during the Afghan conflict, calls for the quick capture of Iraqi territory to establish forward bases to be used to propel 200,000 or more troops deeper into the country.

The officials said any attack would begin with a smaller number of troops while U.S. heavy bombers pounded Saddam's palaces, air defenses and bases.

Iraq's official press on Sunday praised the world community for choosing diplomacy over war by adopting the U.N. resolution, which it saw as defeating U.S. plans to wage war.

"The awareness of the world of the U.S. objectives and motives has uncovered and exposed the evil British-American plan and foiled the first of its series -- to automatically use force against Iraq," Al-Jumhuriya newspaper said.

More than half a million anti-war protesters from across Europe marched through the Italian city of Florence on Saturday to denounce any U.S. attack on Iraq.

PHOTO CAPTION

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri looks on before the start of an Arab League Arab Foreign Ministers meeting at the Cairo-based league headquarters November 10, 2002. Baghdad came under mounting pressure to accept a new U.N. resolution to disarm, with Arab ministers calling it Iraq's best hope of avoiding a military strike by the United States. (Aladin Abdel Naby/Reuters)