UNITED NATIONS -- The United States and Britain will give Saddam Hussein a short deadline to comply with U.N. inspections or face war and call for a vote early next week on the amended resolution, diplomats said Friday.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was to present the details during his address Friday to the Security Council, council diplomats said.

Meanwhile, Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Friday that the United Nations will soon seek interviews outside Iraq for the first time.

"Conditions ensuring the absence of undue influences are difficult to attain inside Iraq," Blix told the U.N. Security Council. Interviews outside the country might provide such conditions, he said.

Blix criticized the rate at which Iraq has handed over documents on prohibited weapon systems.

"Only a few new such documents have come to light so far and been handed over since we began inspections. . . .I hope that efforts in this respect. . . .will give significant results," he said in his report on the work of his inspectors.

Blix welcomed recent Iraqi cooperation, which he said "can be seen as active, or even proactive."

The chief inspector, whose teams are responsible for the hunt for biological, chemical and missile programs, said Iraq had recently provided additional documentation on anthrax and the VX nerve agent.

"Many have been found to restate what Iraq has already declared."

Despite weeks of diplomatic maneuvering, Washington and London have been unable to muster the nine votes necessary for the resolution's passage.

For several undecided council members, reports from the chief weapons inspectors Friday were expected to be pivotal in the search for a compromise.