Washington ? Secretary of State Colin Powell, reflecting strains with the United Nations, said Tuesday that weapons searches in Iraq should be held up until the Security Council adopts tough new rules.

Powell spoke out at a hastily arranged news conference only hours after the chief U.N. weapons inspectors worked out arrangements with Iraq that could keep some suspect sites off-limits.

The chief U.N. inspector, Hans Blix, said earlier in Vienna, after negotiations with Iraq were concluded, that an advance team of inspectors could be in Iraq in two weeks if it got the approval of Security Council.

But amid evident tension, Powell said sending inspectors back to Iraq now after a lapse of nearly four years would risk further deception by President Saddam Hussein.

“We will not be satisfied with Iraqi half-truths or Iraqi compromises, or Iraqi efforts to get us back into the same swamp that they took the United Nations into,” Powell said.

“Pressure works, and we are going to keep it up,” he said.

Referring to the Vienna negotiations, Powell said “Dr. Blix is an agent of the Security Council and will carry out what the Security Council will do.”

“Our position,” Powell said, “is that he should get new instructions in the form of a resolution.”

Powell said he looked forward to Blix briefing the Security Council later in the week. “Dr. Blix is doing a fine job, but he needs to be in receipt of additional guidance and instructions from the Security Council in the form of new resolution language.”

And, Powell said pointedly, the Security Council will adopt its resolution without first negotiating with Iraq.

“Everybody understands that the old inspection regime did not work,” Powell said. “They (the Iraqis) tied it up in knots.”

Blix, in Vienna, said: “I am going to report in all humility to the Security Council what we have done. It’s for them to decide. We are not deciding.”

The deal ignores U.S. demands for access to Saddam’s palaces and some of the other tough U.S.-sought provisions.

These include authorizing inspectors to establish “no-fly” and “no-drive” zones that would bar Iraqi officials while the searches are under way.

l More on U.S. plans for Iraq. Page 6A.