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Warning that Saddam Hussein poses a grave danger to peace, President Bush said Thursday that world leaders who have been reluctant to confront the threat must "move deliberately and decisively to hold Iraq to account," the Associated Press reported.

"The just demands of peace and security will be met - or action will be unavoidable," Bush told the United Nations General Assembly. "And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power. We cannot stand by and do nothing while dangers gather. We must stand up for our security and for the permanent rights and hopes of mankind."

Bush made his case against the backdrop of widespread hesitation among U.S. allies - and U.S. lawmakers - to use force against Baghdad.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan cautioned the United States against taking action without Security Council backing. Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations blasted Bush's speech, saying it lacked credibility and was motivated by revenge and political ambition.

"He chooses to deceive the world and his own people by the longest series of fabrications that have ever been told by a leader of a nation," said Ambassador Mohamed al-Douri.

Bush's speech amounted to a challenge to the United Nations to live up to its responsibility. "Iraq has answered a decade of U.N. demands with a decade of defiance," Bush said. "All the world now faces a test ... and the United Nations, a difficult and defining moment. Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced ... or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding ... or will it be irrelevant?"

Bush offered to work in concert with other nations on a resolution "to meet our common challenge." And, he said, "If the Iraqi regime defies us again the world must move deliberately and decisively" against the Iraqi leader.

A senior U.S. official said Secretary of State Colin Powell would work Friday with the four other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Russia, China, France and Britain - on a resolution that would set a deadline for compliance within weeks for Iraq to meet demands that it admit weapons inspectors.

Already, U.S. military forces are being moved into position to strike against Iraq. Core staff of the U.S. military command responsible for operations in the Persian Gulf and Central Asia will be shifted from their headquarters in Florida to the Gulf nation of Qatar in November, defense officials said Wednesday.