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A special decree has set up four regional commands, answerable to the Iraqi leader, to take the necessary steps to "destroy any foreign aggression".

US President George W Bush will meet the prime ministers of Britain and Spain for talks in the Azores on Sunday, but correspondents say it is unlikely the summit will produce new impetus for a diplomatic solution.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme that the three leaders would still seek peace, but the outcome was up to the Iraqi president.

He said further backing from the United Nations "would be politically desirable, politically better, but from a legal point of view it is not indispensable".

Crucial days

On the eve of the summit, France, Russia and Germany called for an urgent meeting of foreign ministers at the UN Security Council on Tuesday to discuss a "realistic" timetable for Saddam Hussein to disarm.

US intelligence agents have also drawn up a list of senior Iraqi officials - including the Iraqi leader and his two sons - they believe should be tried for war crimes, the New York Times reported.

The BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus, reporting from Qatar, says plans have already been given to brigade level and officers have been working on the specific tasks that will be given to individual battalions and units.

As anti-war protests took place at around the world on Saturday, Mr Bush warned Americans that "crucial days lie ahead for the free nations of the world."

In his weekly radio address, Mr Bush said: "Governments are now showing whether their stated commitments to liberty and security are words alone - or convictions they are prepared to act upon."

He pledged that the US military had been given every resource to help them should war be necessary.

'No justification'

On Sunday, Mr Bush will hold talks with Tony Blair and Jose Maria Aznar at a US air base in the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

Aides insist that the summit is not a council of war, but a BBC correspondent in Washington, Justin Webb, says there is little hope of new peace plans.

But, as France has said it will veto any resolution presented to the Security Council that involves a trigger for war, the view in Washington is that the three leaders meeting in the Azores will simply withdraw it.

They could then base their case for war on existing UN demands, our correspondent adds.

The French Government, together with Russia and Germany, reiterated late on Saturday that they see no justification for military action.

"We reaffirm that nothing justifies in the present circumstances putting a stop to the inspection process and resorting to the use of force," their joint declaration said.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told French television he believed war was increasingly inevitable.

France, he said, was "ready for a compromise on a very tight timetable, but not on an ultimatum, not on an automatic recourse to the use of force."

Baghdad invitation

Iraq has invited the chief UN weapons inspectors to visit Baghdad "as quickly as possible" to examine outstanding disarmament issues.

Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei are in consultations with Security Council members about an Iraqi invitation to Baghdad but no decision is expected before Monday, Mr Blix's spokesman said.

The Iraqis have asked the inspectors to visit to speed up co-operation on pending disarmament issues.

But a BBC correspondent at the UN, Susannah Price, says there is little chance of Mr Blix leaving immediately.

He is expected to give Security Council members a copy of his latest report on key remaining disarmament tasks on Tuesday and is likely to address them shortly afterwards.