U.S. Calls Resolutions on Iraqi Arms ‘Ample’ : Weapons: The comment follows Security Council condemnation of Saddam Hussein for refusing to allow the dismantling of missiles.

The Bush Administration said Saturday that the United States will not seek a new United Nations resolution to force Iraq to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction.

Resolutions on the books are “ample,” National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft told reporters in Dallas. “The U.N. is standing firm.”

Scowcroft’s comments followed the U.N. Security Council’s condemnation of Saddam Hussein on Friday for refusing to allow a U.N. inspection team to dismantle missile production facilities and stocks. The council also demanded that an Iraqi delegation come to New York to discuss the situation “without further delay.”

U.N. resolutions ending the Persian Gulf War forbid Iraq to possess or make any missiles with a range greater than 90 miles. In a letter to the United Nations on Friday, Baghdad argued that the equipment could be altered for peaceful use in the oil industry and other civilian purposes.

The current standoff may not be as easy to resolve as past Iraqi refusals to comply with U.N. requirements, according to U.S. experts on arms proliferation and the Middle East.

The Administration, which led the 28-nation coalition against Iraq, basically has two options: either to back up the U.N. warning of unspecified “serious consequences” with military threats or to hope that international pressure alone will lead Baghdad eventually to comply.

In past confrontations--such as a dispute over using U.N. helicopters and one concerning the right of U.N. inspectors to remove records of Iraq’s nuclear programs (which resulted in a standoff in a Baghdad parking lot)--Iraq has eventually given in after U.S. threats of military action.

But U.S. analysts argue that election year considerations may have injected a new component into the Administration’s deliberations, although they disagree as to what effect it might have.

At a time of controversy over President Bush’s high profile on foreign policy rather than domestic economic issues, the Administration would probably prefer to stay away from a major new initiative, especially one that might involve risking American lives, several analysts predicted.

“During the helicopter and parking lot crises, we cranked up the righteous wrath of the coalition and got Saddam nervous. We created a sense that there was a military risk and that it might be taken,” said Leonard Spector, a weapons proliferation expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“But this time, it’s going to be difficult for Bush to advance that kind of action because of domestic politics. The minute he says he has F-17s or F-111s ready, Pat Buchanan will say, ‘Why are we doing this?’ The Democrats could also take issue,” he added.

Others argued, however, that the Administration might feel compelled again to threaten action--or at least leak word of its preparations--to force Hussein’s hand. At home, it would offer an opportunity “to capitalize on Hussein’s negative image to revive the national fervor that came with the war,” one Mideast specialist said.

But both sides agree that the Iraqi leader is deliberately stalling in an attempt both to hold on to weapons capabilities and to show his strength at home, despite international pressure.

“Saddam’s game is terribly easy to read. He’s trying to out-wait Bush,” said a former U.N. observer in the Mideast. “He’s trying to control the pace of the game and, thereby, he hopes, its outcome.”

After a year of dealing with the stubborn Iraqi leader, U.S. analysts also believe this is unlikely to be the last showdown.

Iraq escalated the war of words Saturday by charging that the U.N. threat of serious consequences for failure to comply “clearly shows how the United States has turned its tool, the (U.N.) Security Council . . . into cheap political means to achieve imperialist aims.”

The statement from the Iraqi Foreign Ministry also alleged that the United States was deliberately creating a negative climate “to wreck and distort the Iraqi stand before the (Iraqi) delegation could put the matter before the Security Council.” Iraq is expected to send a delegation to New York within the next two weeks.

The U.N. missile inspection team left Iraq on Saturday. During its eight-day mission, British missile expert Christopher Holland said, the U.N. team visited four missile sites “within bus distance from Baghdad.” But seven sessions with Iraqi officials failed to win agreement for the team to dismantle the facilities, he said.

“There was no doubt in my mind that they fully understood what was required, but they were not prepared to comply,” Holland said after the U.N. team arrived in Bahrain.

In a related development, Scowcroft said in Dallas that King Hussein of Jordan will meet with President Bush soon to discuss Iraq and the Mideast peace process.

Times staff writer Douglas Jehl contributed to this report from Dallas.