"I think sufficient warnings have been given," Defense Secretary William Cohen told reporters at Pentagon.
Meanwhile, Pentagon officials canceled a scheduled port call for the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, keeping it within striking range of Iraq.
The warship had been slated for a rest-stop at the United Arab Emirates in the far southern end of the Gulf over the weekend. The visit has been delayed for an unspecified time, said Pentagon spokesperson Kenneth Bacon.
Cohen took time before a Pentagon awards ceremony to assert that Iraq's blockade of U.N. inspection teams and its admitted tampering with surveillance cameras are clear violations of the 1991 cease-fire accords that ended the Persian Gulf War.
"This is not a negotiable item," Cohen said of Iraq's refusal to admit U.S. members of the United Nations weapons inspection teams. "It is imperative that Iraq comply with U.N. mandates."
The defense secretary said the United States will wait to take any action until it sees reports from a U.N. team currently in Baghdad.
With less than 24 hours to go before a make-or-break roll call, backers said they were still at least a dozen votes short of the 218 needed, even with the deals the administration was cutting to attract votes.
An anxious President Clinton took to the airwaves last night to call on lawmakers to approve the legislation, which would allow the president to get a quick up-or-down vote from Congress on new international trade accords. Fast-track, he said, is needed to "advance (U.S.) economic interests" and "advance our ideals."
"A vote against fast-track will not create a single job, clean up a single toxic waste site, advance worker rights
or improve the environment," he said, alluding to opposition by labor and environmentalists.
"But it will limit America's ability to advance our economic interests, promote our democratic ideals, our political leadership," he said. "I call upon the House of Representatives to vote for American leadership.
More than 15,000 people, including President Clinton and former Presidents Ford and Carter, gathered to dedicate the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum at Texas A&M University. The school's band played, its cadets sang and a team of parachutists bailed out overhead, trailing colorful smoke.
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