Clinton condemns Iraq's decision to not cooperate with inspectors Monday

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• Iraqi parliament endorses move
• Military intervention still possible
• Related sites and stories

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. President Bill Clinton said Monday that Iraq's decision to stop cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors was "completely unacceptable."

"For Iraq, the only path to lifting international sanctions is cooperation with weapons inspectors," Clinton said during a White House event.

"Until the inspectors are back on the job, no options are off the table," Clinton added, in an apparent reference to possible U.S. military action. ( 282 K/26 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

As the United Nations was considering its next step, Secretary-General Kofi Annan described Iraq's decision as "a total breach of Security Council resolutions."

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Those resolutions say that Iraq must cooperate fully with the U.N. weapons inspections, which are led by Richard Butler.

A U.N. spokesman rejected Iraqi allegations that Butler was biased against Iraq and said that Annan stood by Butler and would not fire him, as demanded by Baghdad.

Describing the latest standoff with Baghdad as very serious, Butler said, "The council will now begin this Monday to work through the steps that need to be taken to ensure that this confrontation ends and we get back to work." ( 392 K/28 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

Earlier in the day, in Iraq, U.N. teams were allowed to visit weapons sites to maintain surveillance equipment, despite Baghdad's announcement over the weekend that Iraq had suspended all cooperation with the United Nations on weapons monitoring.

"A technical team from UNSCOM (the U.N. Special Commission disarming Iraq) has gone out to maintain monitoring equipment," said Caroline Cross, special assistant to the director of the Baghdad Monitoring and Verification Center.

"They have IMD officials to go along with them," she said. The Iraqi Monitoring Directorate is the Iraqi body working with UNSCOM.

Iraq's parliament votes unanimously Monday to end cooperation with U.N. inspectors

Cross also said that teams from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had gone out to sites for a second successive day.

Iraq said on Saturday it was halting all cooperation with UNSCOM inspectors and monitors until the Security Council reviewed the lifting of international sanctions against Iraq and removed Butler, the chairman of UNSCOM, which is in charge of scrapping Iraq's chemical and biological weapons.

But Baghdad said the IAEA, the Vienna-based watchdog for nuclear weapons, could continue its monitoring work in Iraq.

"IAEA teams have gone out to monitor sites as usual," Cross said.

UNSCOM and the IAEA maintain surveillance cameras in hundreds of Iraqi sites suspected of producing weapons of mass destruction.

The Security Council has unanimously condemned Iraq's move and demanded that Baghdad end its non-cooperation "immediately and unconditionally." Iraq on Sunday rejected the council's condemnation.

On Monday, Iraq's 250-member National Assembly -- dominated by President Saddam Hussein's Baath Party -- gave an expected unanimous endorsement to Saturday's government decision.

Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told parliament that UNSCOM was being "used by the United States and Israel to execute their aggressive schemes against Iraq."

He again emphasized that Iraq would not reverse its stand unless the Security Council ensured a promised review of Iraq's weapons systems would lead to a lifting of the punishing trade sanctions on the country.

The British foreign ministry said on Monday that London would support using force against Iraq should that be considered necessary.

A ministry spokesman said Britain had no doubt that Iraq's non-cooperation was a violation of agreements reached between Iraq and the United Nations.

The spokesman said Prime Minister Tony Blair was consulting with his ministers and advisers on the latest standoff.

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said Sunday that unilateral U.S. military action against Iraq had "always been an option we could pursue... but we prefer to act through our allies and with our allies if we have to take any action at all."

A standoff between the United Nations and Iraq earlier this year led to a dramatic buildup of U.S. and British forces in the Gulf region.

The threat of military intervention was only lifted after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan went to Baghdad and negotiated a solution to the crisis with Hussein.