US President George W Bush on Sunday gave the United Nations up to Monday to decide whether to support a war to disarm Iraq.

He gave this ultimatum after an emergency meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in the Azores Islands.

The UK and Spain fully back a military strike on Iraq, while France, Russia and Germany are bitterly opposed to the move. The rest of the nations are similarly divided on the issue.

The US is making sustained efforts to secure the support of a majority for its plan to attack Iraq to depose President Saddam Hussein.

Troops from the US and UK are massed around Iraq in anticipation of a military strike. The US has ordered its non-essential staff and families of diplomats to leave israel, Syria and Kuwait in another indication that war is imminent.