HIGHLIGHTS: US Congress Focuses on Openendedness of Draft Resolution Presented to it by Bush||Blair's Dossier Fails to Convince Wavering Allies in Europe and the Middle East||Iraq Responds by Offering Unfettered Access to UN Inspectors Describing the Dossier as Being Long in Allegations, Short in Evidence||Malysia Wants Sanctions against Iraq Lifted Immediately Now Iraq Has Accepted Return of Inspectors||China Warns of Severe Consequences if Military Action is Taken Against Iraq without UN Authorization|| STORY: US President George W. Bush seized on the presentation of a British intelligence dossier on Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons as impetus for swift and bold action against Baghdad, which dismissed the report as insignificant. The US leader, whose administration accuses Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein of developing weapons of mass destruction, again urged the US Congress to "act now to pass a resolution which will hold Saddam to account for a decade of defiance" of UN resolutions.

Later, at a political fundraiser, Bush said Saddam is worse to his own people than former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was, seemingly trying to urge skeptical US allies in Europe to support action against Saddam as they did against Milosevic.

US lawmakers have focused their debate on what they consider to be the open-endedness of the draft resolution sent last week to the bicameral legislature, which allows the president to "use all means" to "defend the national security interests of the United States against the threat posed by Iraq, and restore the international peace and security in the region."

Top opposition Democratic Senator Tom Daschle said lawmakers would likely reach a consensus by the weekend after working with the White House on amending the language of the resolution.

But, Daschle said, "by and large, Republicans and Democrats are likely to give the benefit of the doubt to the president."

The detailed study presented by Blair, produced by Britain's secretive Joint Intelligence Committee, failed to convince some wavering allies in both Europe and the Middle East.

In its dossier, Britain, the chief ally in Washington's pitch for action against Iraq, warned Baghdad could be only a year or two away from possessing a nuclear bomb.

The report said Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons in no more than 45 minutes, stressing that Saddam "attaches great importance to possessing weapons of mass destruction (and) does not regard them only as weapons of last resort."

Baghdad dismissed the intelligence as nothing more than a way to galvanize support for military strikes and offered UN arms inspectors "unfettered access" to suspected weapons sites, presidential adviser Amer Saadi said.

Saadi advised Blair to pass his dossier to the UN commission in charge of Iraq's disarmament so the truth would be made known.

Blair's "conclusions that Iraq is engaged in the production of weapons of mass destruction are simply not true. His allegations are long, his evidence is short."

Asian leaders, too, were unconvinced by the revelations, which analysts said highlighted no new information, and concluding their three-day Asia-Europe Meeting, highlighted the regions' differences with the United States.

Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji warned of "severe consequences" if military action was launched against Iraq without a UN mandate.

"We request that Iraq comply with UN resolutions without any preconditions and accept the UN weapons inspections," he said.

"We also ask that Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity be respected. Without authority or mandate from the United Nations or without firm evidence any actions will lead to severe consequences."

And Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said sanctions must be lifted now that Saddam had agreed to readmit UN weapons inspectors.

"Britain and America should listen to the rest of the world," he said.

The Europeans, too, minced no words when rejecting unilateral force against Iraq.

Speaking after the end of the summit, French President Jacques Chirac said that most countries would not back a new UN resolution which would allow the use of force against Iraq.

He said certain countries "completely in the minority," were considering the idea that "the Security Council should perhaps, in a resolution, allow for an eventual use of force.

"That is not the opinion of France and that is not the opinion of the very very great majority of our partners gathered here," he said.

Unfazed, chief White House spokesman Ari Fleischer chided critics who said the dossier lacked new evidence or a "smoking gun."

"The problem with smoking guns is they only smoke after they're fired, and we don't want to let Saddam Hussein fire any more weapons," he said.

But Germany, whose Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has been snubbed by Washington for his anti-war position on Iraq, remained quiet, choosing instead to concentrate on maintaining cordial relations with Britain.

After a cordial meeting between the two European leaders, Germany's ambassador to London instead insisted that Schroeder's opposition to any military action against Iraq would not stand in the way of joint action to rid the world of the threat from weapons of mass destruction and terrorism.

PHOTO CAPTION

Amir al-Saadi, adviser to President Saddam Hussein, told reporters during a news conference in Baghdad on September 24 that United Nations weapons inspectors will have unfettered access to any site they want to inspect in Iraq. REUETRS/Faleh Kheiber