At U.N. headquarters in New York, Blix told reporters Friday he had asked al-Saadi to clarify Iraq's stance. Still, he said the destruction of the missiles was "a very significant piece of real disarmament." 

"They say they accepted in principle, and it is to start tomorrow, so maybe tomorrow evening or Sunday we will have more to say," he said. 

U.N. inspectors now estimate Iraq has between 100 and 120 of the missiles, according to diplomatic sources. 

The United States dismissed the Iraqi decision. "This is the deception the president predicted," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. 

"We do expect that they will destroy at least some of their missiles," but President Bush won't settle for anything less than full disarmament, he said. "The Iraqi regime is a deception wrapped in a lie." 

Blix's top deputy, Demetrius Perricos, was in Baghdad on Friday to discuss "the pace of the destruction" with the Iraqis. He was to meet Iraqi officials Saturday morning about possibly starting the U.N.-monitored destruction process later in the day, inspectors' spokesman Hiro Ueki said Friday. 

Iraq's chief liaison to the U.N. inspectors, Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohamed Amin, could not be reached for comment. No other Iraqi government officials commented publicly on the missiles. 

The issue of the Al Samoud 2 missiles has become a litmus test of Iraq's willingness to comply with the weapons inspections. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have threatened war if they decide Iraq has not complied. 

Blair, speaking Friday at a news conference in Madrid, belittled the Iraqi concession. He said Saddam "never makes any concessions at all other than with the threat of force hanging over him." 

But European governments opposed to an imminent war said the Iraqi decision indicated that inspections were working. The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Greece argued that the pledge to destroy the missiles showed that a stringent program of weapons inspections is the right way to disarm Iraq. 

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Iraqi compliance on the missile order was "an important step in the process of the peaceful disarmament of Iraq. It confirms that inspectors are getting results." 

Iraq, which has accused Blair and Bush of being set on war no matter what it does, prepared for battle. 

Iraqi troops moved into new positions around Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, the base for many of the elite Republican Guard troops who are expected to provide the bulk of resistance to any invading force. 

Travelers on Thursday saw dozens of tanks being transported by truck from the northern city of Mosul to an area near Tikrit. Both tanks and anti-aircraft guns were dug in at a long string of deep trenches with only their turrets exposed near Tikrit, 100 miles north of Baghdad. 

Dozens of armored personnel carriers rumbled both ways along the route. 

In Washington, U.S. intelligence said part of the Adnan Republican Guard division based near Mosul had been moving south. It also reported concentrations of forces moving into the Baghdad area. 

Bush administration officials called the moves a further effort to protect Saddam's power centers. 

The U.N. Security Council was considering a U.S.-backed resolution that would authorize war, as well as a French-led proposal to continue with the weapons inspections. A heated closed-door discussion on Thursday did little to bridge deep differences on the council. 

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia was prepared, if necessary, to veto the U.S. resolution to preserve "international stability."