The 40-minute televised address, delivered on the 12th anniversary of the Gulf War, revealed no sign that Saddam was prepared to step down or bow to demands of the United Nations, which has sent inspectors to determine if Iraq has given up its weapons of mass destruction. 

On Thursday, the inspectors found 12 empty rocket warheads that could be used to carry chemical agents. Iraq claims the warheads are old and were listed in earlier disclosures of the country's weapons. The inspectors initially were not sure if the 12th warhead was a potential chemical weapons carrier, but concluded Friday it was. 

It was not clear when Saddam recorded the address, but in it he did not mention the warhead discovery Thursday. 

In Paris, French President Jacques Chirac met with chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and supported the request by Blix and head nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei for additional time to complete their mission. 

"The people of Baghdad have resolved to compel the Mongols of this age to commit suicide on its walls," Saddam said, referring to the United States. "Everyone who tries to climb over its walls ... will fail in his attempt." 

He said the Iraqi nation was fully mobilized against the threat of a new conflict and told President Bush to "keep your evil away from the mother of civilization." 

"The whole nation will rise in defense of its right to live," Saddam said. "Their (aggressors') arrows will go astray or backfire, God willing." 

In an appeal for Arab support, Saddam said "Western peoples and circles" had long interfered with the nations of the Middle East, "in particular Zionist Jews and Zionists who are not of the Jewish people." 

"Long live Palestine, free and Arab, from the (Mediterranean) sea to the (Jordan) river," he said. 

Saddam didn't refer to Bush by name but alluded to him as Hologu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, who destroyed Baghdad and killed its ruler in 1258. 

Repeated references to Baghdad, rather than Iraq, appeared to be a sign that Saddam plans to rally his troops around the capital for a decisive battle aimed at inflicting as many casualties as possible on U.S. forces, if Bush decides on a military attack to force Iraqi disarmament. 

On Jan. 17, 1991, a U.S.-led coalition launched devastating air attacks against Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, opening Operation Desert Storm, which drove Iraqi invaders out of Kuwait. 

Saddam has depicted the events of 1991 as a victory because Iraq stood up to a superpower and because his regime managed to survive invasion and subsequent uprisings. 

"The scheming of attackers backfired in that aggression, which they are continuing until the present day, all backed by aggression and wishful thinking," Saddam said. 

With the possibility of a new war looming, Saddam called on Iraqis to "hold your swords and guns up high to remind those who might be under illusions ... that your country will not stand firm." 

He said the Bush administration has been "pushed by Zionists and interest-seekers to play a role of wild and destructive instincts instead of the civilized behavior that is expected in this age." 

Immediately after the speech, several thousand Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad to voice their support for the president. 

The anniversary did not hinder U.N. weapons inspectors, who pressed on with their task to determine if Iraq has disarmed as it maintains. Bush has warned that this is Iraq's last chance to give up mass destruction weapons or face war. 

The current crisis erupted after the United States and Britain accused Iraq of maintaining weapons of mass destruction banned under U.N. resolutions approved after the Gulf war. They threatened military force unless Saddam disarmed. 

The Iraqi government says it no longer has any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and submitted a 12,000-page declaration to the United Nations last month that it said proved its case. 

Blix and ElBaradei have said Iraq's declaration is incomplete and fails to support its claims to have destroyed banned weapons. Blix and ElBaradei will travel to Baghdad for talks Sunday and Monday. 

Inspectors visited military industry sites in the Faluga area west of Baghdad, and a farm near Juwesma, southwest of the capital on Friday. They had to pass a protest by some 200 members of the Iraqi journalists' union who protested against them outside the hotel where the U.N. staff live. 

Inspectors' spokesman Hiro Ueki said U.N. officials were checking to see whether Iraq had previously notified the United Nations of the warheads' existence. 

Blix said Friday he was unsure if the 12 rocket warheads found Thursday were already listed in Iraq's 12,000-page declaration. He said he did not think the discovery would lead the United States to attack. 

"You better ask Mr. Bush himself, however what I see from the American reaction is that they too would like to have a little further information about it, and so I'm not so worried," Blix said. 

"This was a very good discovery," Blix said. "There are no chemical weapons inside them. However, clearly they were designed to carry chemical weapons. I think we should destroy them, that's the rules." 

Despite growing American impatience, Chirac said Blix and ElBaradei were correct to seek more time. 

"It is only wise to agree to this request," Chirac said. "Give them more time to work to bring about a more detailed response." 

Iraq appeared to be conducting its own diplomacy among fellow Arab nations who are seeking to prevent a war in the Gulf region. 

Also Friday, Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin and confidant of Saddam, met Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus for talks on averting war. Al-Majid handed Assad a letter from the Iraqi president, Syria's official news agency SANA reported. It gave no details about the letter. 

Al-Majid, who is a member of the Revolutionary Command Council - the supreme decision-making body in Iraq - arrived on a four-day visit to Syria as part of a regional tour to discuss the U.S.-Iraq standoff. He is also scheduled to visit Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. 

Al-Majid has been linked to some of the most brutal events of Saddam's regime. He led a 1988 campaign against rebels in northern Iraq in which thousands of Kurds were killed, many of them in chemical attacks. He was also governor of Kuwait after Iraq invaded the country in 1990.