"For the sake of peace, this issue must be resolved," Bush said before meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the White House. "Hopefully, it can be done peacefully. Hopefully, the pressure of the free world will convince Mr. Saddam Hussein to relinquish power. 

"And should he choose to leave the country along with a lot of the other henchmen who have tortured the Iraqi people, we would welcome that, of course." 

"The use of military troops is my last choice, not my first. Commitment of ... Americans into battle is a difficult decision, because I understand the costs of war. But I also understand the cost of inaction." 

Bush also met Thursday with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal. Saudi Arabia is among several Arab nations trying to convince Saddam to step down. 

The Bush administration is threatening military action if Iraq does not account for weapons of mass destruction and fully cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors. 

"We believe that Iraq is not disarming," U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday. "Iraq has failed the test set out by [U.N. Resolution] 1441, and is close to squandering its final opportunity." 

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will go before the U.N. Security Council on February 5 to build the case for military action. He will present newly declassified intelligence the White House says shows Iraq has been keeping close tabs on weapons inspectors and racing to sanitize sites before they arrive for inspections. 

"Let me be clear -- this is more than just an appearance before the Security Council," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the Foreign Relations Committee. "We're going to try to lay this out for the world." 

But Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, cut Armitage off at one point and demanded to know why Powell hadn't come before the committee. 

"I'm just tired of having to hear these speeches being given about this," Dodd said. "I want to know, specifically and factually, what we know. And before you go and tell the whole world about it, I think we have a right to know what's going on here." 

Bush received a boost Thursday from Berlusconi and seven other European leaders, who declared their solidarity with the U.S. position. 

In a statement published in newspapers across Europe, the leaders said the September 11 terror attacks on the United States "showed just how far terrorists -- the enemies of our common values -- are prepared to go." 

"We know that success in the day-to-day battle against terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction demands unwavering determination and firm international cohesion on the part of all countries for whom freedom is precious," the statement said. (Full story) 

Besides Berlusconi, the statement was signed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose-Manuel Durao Barroso, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel, Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy, and Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller. 

Noticeably absent from the declaration were Germany and France, which have expressed opposition to the U.S. stance on Iraq and the possibility of military action to forcibly disarm Baghdad. 

Bush will meet with Blair at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, on Friday and Saturday.