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Invasion Imminent

White House officials are refusing to say whether they will keep to President Bush's 48-hour deadline for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to leave the country, which expires at 0100 GMT on Thursday.

With nearly 300,000 US and British troops poised to attack his country, the Iraqi leader remains defiant, rejecting the deadline to leave and readying his country for its "last battle".

As the deployment accelerated, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair won key parliamentary support for the military campaign against Saddam Hussein, despite a major rebellion within his own Labour Party.

Sandstorm

White House officials say Mr Bush's language in issuing a deadline to the Iraqi president deliberately left open the option of military action before the deadline.

The Iraqi leadership has rejected out of hand the US demands that Saddam Hussein and his sons leave, so the US might not feel any constraint on its actions, the BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says.

The US army's vice-chief of staff, General John Keane, has indicated that an opening air attack could be followed very quickly by troops on the ground.

Convoys of US troops in tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks have been moving across the Kuwaiti desert towards the Iraqi border.

A fierce sandstorm is blowing across parts of the region, cutting visibility to just a few metres.

US commanders have said the weather could play a role in the timing of any attack. Desert storms can affect delicate equipment, but also provide cover from enemy observation.

In other developments:

• An emergency session of the Iraqi national assembly begins with defiant chants from the floor in support of President Saddam Hussein
• US Secretary of State Colin Powell says 45 nations had joined Mr Bush's "coalition of the willing" - although 5 preferred to remain unnamed at the moment
• The Turkish Government is to ask parliament to allow US planes to use its air space, with a vote expected on Thursday
• Pope John Paul II warns the leaders of the forces gathered against Iraq that they face a grave responsibility before God if they go to war
• France, one of the staunchest opponents of conflict, says that if Iraq uses weapons of mass destruction it may consider assisting the war effort

Western intelligence sources say they remain convinced that the Iraqis have chemical and biological weapons and may decide to use them against invading forces.

But this has been discounted by the chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, who said he doubted Iraq would use them even as a last resort because it would turn world opinion in favour of the US.

Humanitarian crisis

Mr Blix is due to deliver a report to the UN Security Council later on Wednesday (about 1530 GMT), listing the key disarmament tasks Iraq has yet to fulfil.

And Sons

But, with disarmament issues now overtaken by events, correspondents say this is now an academic exercise.

Security Council members, deeply divided over military action, are likely to turn their attention to the humanitarian role of the UN during and after any conflict.

Deep divisions surfaced in parliament in London on Tuesday where, amid dramatic scenes, Mr Blair won backing for the use of UK forces in Iraq by a large majority - 412 to 149.

But the vote also delivered the greatest parliamentary revolt of Mr Blair's premiership, with 139 of his party colleagues voting for an amendment saying the case for war was not yet proven.

Baghdad defiance

In Iraq, people have been making final preparations for war, mainly buying food and fuel.

The BBC's Paul Wood, reporting from the Iraqi capital, says Wednesday will probably be the last full day of peace and the people of Baghdad fully expect to spend the days and nights after it in the air raid shelters.

Hours after the US President delivered his ultimatum, Saddam Hussein appeared on television himself, dressed in a military uniform, to reject it.

A statement from a cabinet meeting chaired by the Iraqi president said Iraq and all its people were "fully ready to confront the invading aggressors and repel them".

Saddam Hussein's defiance was echoed by Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri who denounced Mr Bush's as "a war criminal" and accused Washington of trying to "push the United Nations to suicide".