Hours after the US and its partners Britain and Spain gave the UN one more day to agree to a resolution demanding Iraq's immediate disarmament, France, Russia and Germany rejected giving any ultimatum to Iraq and have called for giving Baghdad 'realistic time' to fulfill key disarmament tasks and more time to weapons inspectors to do their job.

Following Bush's ultimatum, the UN Security Council members decided to hold a closed-door meeting on Iraq at 10:00 am (2030 IST) on Monday

Earlier, the Council was due to meet in the evening but it advanced consultations by five hours as its members realised that time was fast running out.

"The Iraqi regime will disarm itself or the Iraqi regime will be disarmed by force," Bush had said in Azores on Sunday.

UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix called the situation 'very threatening' but said unless there was a sudden decision to withdraw the UN team from Iraq, inspectors would continue to work as normal.

Blix said he would push forward with a 30-page work programme and a list of key remaining disarmament tasks he wants Iraq to complete. Also, with the prospect of military action looming ahead, Blix was considering an invitation to visit Baghdad.

However, the weapons inspectors flew most of their helicopters out of Iraq as insurance companies withdrew cover and that has slowed down their work.

Meanwhile, France offered to consider a 30-day deadline to Iraq provided the inspectors recommend the same but without giving any ultimatum to Baghdad.

The US immediately rejected the idea and inspectors are unlikely to recommend it.

Though the United States and its allies gave until Monday for diplomacy to work, it was unclear what they intend to do.

They could press for a vote on the resolution already introduced, which sets March 17 as the deadline or could withdraw it or move another resolution giving a few more days to President Saddam Hussein to comply with the disarmament tasks.

But diplomats say that Washington intends to push back the deadline by a few days and the vote is not likely on Monday.

The United States could simply abandon the resolution and take military action, citing the previous 1441 resolution as the authority.

It could also amend the resolution, in which case, it would need to give 24 hours to members to get instructions from their capitals before the vote.

US officials have indicated that once diplomacy was exhausted, Washington would move on a war footing. Bush may address the American people possibly as early as Monday night and issue a final ultimatum to Saddam Hussein.

It has already ordered its non-essential diplomatic staff and dependants out of Israel, Syria and Kuwait.

Meanwhile, French President Jacques Chirac repeated that his country would veto any UN resolution, which paves the way for war on Iraq, saying, "We should pursue (diplomacy) until we've come to a dead end."