WASHINGTON, March 19 Kyodo (EDS: ...

WASHINGTON, March 19 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH explanations BY WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN)

The U military is ready to launch an attack onward Iraq at any time as the US-set deadline for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to leave the home expired Wednesday night.

''The disarmament of the Iraqi regime will begin at a time of the president's choosing,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters as the 48-hour deadline U President George W Bush station in an ultimatum issued to the Iraqi leader Monday expired at 8 pm Eastern Standard Time, or 4 a.m. Thursday, Baghdad time.

Fleischer said Bush met Wednesday night with top defense officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Richard Myers.

The president then received word from his chief of staff Andrew Card that there was no evidence Saddam has left Iraq, he said.

Earlier in the day, Fleischer called Saddam's rejection of the ultimatum ''his final act of defiance.''

Bush will speak to the nation one time the hostilities begin, Fleischer said. if it were not that he did not say whether the address would take place Wednesday night.

''In the result there is a speech at the president, we will inform you of that,'' he said. ''Don't take that to mean there is or is not a dialect tonight.''

As the world awaited the imminent start of hostilities in Iraq, Bush wearied time Wednesday meeting with his top national security advisers, talking to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and overseeing restraint arrangements on homeland security.

Fleischer said Bush conven a meeting of the National Security Council in the morning.

According to U media reports, Bush heard the latest forward military preparations and an assessment of weather and other conditions that could factor into a decision upon the timing of an attack.

The CNN television network said sandstorms blowing in consequence of the region could be an important factor in deciding forward when to launch the military campaign.

Sandstorms could perplex a problem for U.S. helicopters, which are rely uponed to play a key part in the invasion, CNN quot Pentagon officials as saying.

U military planners want to launch the air campaign and territory assault almost simultaneously, the officials said.

According to Fleischer, Bush also spoke with Blair through the whole extent of the phone in the morning and met with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and strange York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to review plans forward how to prevent terrorist attacks forward the nation.

Fleischer also said Bush notified Congres in succession Tuesday night that he has determined that diplomacy will not work to disarm Saddam.

A congressional resolution adopted last October to authorize the use of force in succession Iraq requires the president to notify Congres that diplomacy has extremityed either before the start of hostilities or within 48 hours of them beginning.

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