January 19 2003
The US offers President Saddam immunity from prosecution if his departure from Baghdad would avert war.
US offers immunity to Saddam

January 18 2003
It emerges that the Saudi government is canvassing a plan to give President Saddam a last-ditch chance to go into exile if the United Nations security council passes a new resolution authorising war against Iraq, western and Arab diplomats confirm.

Anti-war demonstrators take to the streets of cities from Tokyo to San Francisco to protest against the build-up of American and British military forces in the Gulf.
Arab nations tell Saddam: go now and we avoid war
Protesters deplore war preparations

January 16 2003
In their first significant disovery, UN weapons inspectors find 12 warheads designed to carry cheamical weapons. The inspectors believe the warheads were not accounted for in Iraq's 12,000 page submission to the security council.
Iraq weapons inspectors find empty chemical warheads

January 14 2003
The international development secretary, Clare Short, makes an impassioned appeal for countries to reach "agreement by consensus" through the UN.
Short: we must aim for UN consensus

January 13 2003
In his monthly televised briefing, Tony Blair says that weapons of mass destruction will reach terrorists and that Britain could act against Iraq with the US without a second UN resolution.

Mohammed el-Baradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says that UN weapons inspectors would need "a few months" to finish their work in Iraq.
Iraq weapons inspectors 'need a few months'
We must act now or pay the price, says Blair

January 11 2003
A British naval task force leaves for the Gulf headed by the HMS Ark Royal aircraft carrier and carrying some 3,000 marines.
Fleet heads for Gulf as war threat intensifies

January 9 2003
Hans Blix says UN weapons inspectors have not found any "smoking guns" in their search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but acknowledges that Iraq's 12,000 page weapons declaration was incomplete.
Blix: no 'smoking guns' in Iraq

January 6 2003
Saddam Hussein says he is ready for war, accuses UN weapons inspectors of being spies and calls his enemies the "friends and helpers of Satan".
'War-ready' Saddam accuses UN of spying

December 31 2002
A UN inspection team member in Iraq admits to finding "zilch" evidence of weapons of mass destruction and says that the teams have been provided with little guidance from western intelligence agencies.
Weapons teams discover nothing

December 30 2002
It emerges that the Reagan administration and its special Middle East envoy, Donald Rumsfeld, did little to stop Iraq developing weapons of mass destruction in the 1980s, even though they knew Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons "almost daily" against Iran.
Rumsfeld 'offered help to Saddam'

December 22 2002
Baghdad fights back in the propaganda war between Iraq, the US and Britain by inviting the CIA to enter the country and track down its alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Iraq hits back with CIA offer

December 19 2002
The United States accuses Baghdad of being in "material breach" of the UN resolution after the UN's chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, says the Iraqi arms declaration contains little new information about its weapons of mass destruction capability.
January 27 is decision day for war against Iraq

December 18 2002
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, indicates that the UK government believes Iraq has made a "material breach" of the UN resolution. Meanwhile the Ministry of Defence reveals that ships are being chartered to carry troops and heavy armour to the Gulf.
Saddam lied about weapons, says Straw

December 17 2002
Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, hints that the White House will reject the Iraqi weapons declaration, saying there were problems with the 12,000-page document.
Powell picks holes in Iraq's dossier

December 8 2002
Copies of the dossier are flown to the UN inspection agency in New York, the security council and the UN nuclear agency in Vienna for examination.

General Amir al-Sadi, an adviser to President Saddam Hussein, admits that Iraq had come 'close' to developing a nuclear bomb but that programme had long been abandoned.
Defiant Iraq on collision course

December 7 2002
Iraqi officials in Baghdad present the UN with a 12,000 page dossier disclosing Iraq's programmes for weapons of mass destruction, as demanded by UN resolution 1441.

General Hasam Amin of Iraq's national monitoring directorate says the dossier shows 'that Iraq is empty of weapons of mass destruction. I reiterate Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction. This declaration has some activities that are dual-use'.

The contents of the Iraqi dossier are met with widespread scepticism in Washington and London, prompting fears that Iraq is now set on a collision course with the US, which claims to have intelligence that Iraq retains banned weapons and is expected to hotly dispute Iraq's declaration.

In a surprise move, Saddam Hussein uses a televised address to apologise to the people of Kuwait for invading their country in 1990.
Saddam risks war over arms dossier

December 4 2002
The UN security council agrees to extend the UN oil for food programme in Iraq for another six months, but concedes to US demands to review the list of goods Baghdad is barred from importing.
UN extends oil for food programme

December 3 2002
In a public relations coup for Iraq, government officials cooperate fully with UN weapons inspectors when a surprise search is sprung on one of Saddam Hussein's Baghdad palaces.

Iraq says it will hand the security council a declaration about weapons programmes on December 7, one day ahead of the deadline.
Iraq to make early weapons declaration

December 2 2002
The British government publishes a dossier documenting human rights abuses in Iraq. It is attacked by Amnesty International for being 'opportunistic and selective'. Critics say it uses longstanding human rights abuses to achieve current military goals, and ignores US and UK support for Saddam at the time of some of the worst atrocities.
Anger over Straw's dossier on Iraqi human rights
Leader: All change on Iraq