The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, overseeing arms inspections in Iraq, called on the United States on Friday to provide more specific intelligence to help in the search for banned weapons. The appeal came from Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), while top officials in Europe spoke out against a rush to war on the basis of inconclusive weapons inspections.

"Without proof, it would be very difficult to start a war," European Union foreign policy coordinator Javier Solana said.

ElBaradei met with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice at the White House on Friday and later at the State Department with Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The meetings came a day after ElBaradei and his colleague Hans Blix, chief of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, told the U.N. Security Council there were no "smoking guns" to prove Iraq had chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

But Blix told the Security Council Iraq had "failed to answer a great many questions."

Iraq denies it has any banned weapons. But Washington says it does and that if Iraq continued to deceive it would again be in "material breach" of Council resolutions -- language that could mean war.

"We need more actionable information," ElBaradei told reporters in Washington after briefing members of Congress.

FOUR YEARS TO HIDE

Richard Haass, director of policy and planning at the State Department, told a news conference in Morocco, that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has had four years to hide banned weapons since inspectors were last in Iraq.

"One of the things that Saddam Hussein has failed to do is to clear up the discrepancies between what we know he has imported, what we know in the past he possessed, and what he has now declared to the international community," Haass said.

In Iraq, U.N. experts visited three sites on Friday, including a rocket fuel plant, which Britain has alleged may be developing missiles to carry chemical or germ warheads.

U.S. ACCELERATES MILITARY BUILD UP

The United States is doubling its 60,000-strong force in the Gulf. The Pentagon has told a further 7,000 Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to get ready, the Marine Corps said.

But EU Commission President Romano Prodi called for calm: "War is not and must not be inevitable," he said in Greece, which plans to lead an EU peace mission to Arab capitals soon.

The 15 EU nations are sharply divided over Iraq. Britain is mobilizing its forces -- including a big naval landing force led by flagship carrier Ark Royal -- alongside the Americans despite grave doubts within Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour party.

The bloc's other main military power, France, is cooler, insisting on an international mandate for any war. Germany, the biggest economy, opposes outright the idea of attacking Iraq.

Britain's U.N. envoy, too, said there was no undue focus on Blix's next report to the Council on January 27.

Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, who will lead the EU mission to the Middle East, said Europe was not as divided over Iraq as some people suggested.

OPPOSITION WARNING

As President Bush continued to mobilize his forces, one of Saddam's main Iraqi foes said an invasion could destabilize the Middle East.

"We reject the idea of an invasion and occupation of Iraqi territory," said Shi'ite Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim.

Washington has sketched plans for a post-Saddam Iraq that it says would be the most ambitious since its occupation of Germany and Japan after World War II. Critics portray that as a grab for Iraq's vast oil wealth and say it could get bogged down in the ethnically and religiously divided nation of 23 million.

PHOTO CAPTION

Secretary of State Colin Powell, right, escorts International Atomic Energy Agency Director Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei outside the State Department in Washington Friday, Jan. 10, 2003 after their meeting to discuss the nuclear situations in Iraq and North Korea. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
- Jan 10 3:48