United Nations ? Despite pressure from Russia and China to send U.N. weapons inspectors back to Iraq immediately, chief inspector Hans Blix said Tuesday he’ll wait for the Security Council to adopt a new resolution.

The push has been for an advance party to arrive in Baghdad by Saturday, but Blix said that since the council is still debating a resolution “it is evident” the U.N. team won’t get there by then.

“It would be awkward for us to be in Iraq with inspectors deployed and then have a resolution falling down from the Security Council giving us a lot of new instructions and perhaps requiring new practical arrangements,” he said. “We’ve waited now for almost four years (to return) so we’ll have a little patience with the Security Council.”

Intense negotiations continued Tuesday among the five veto-wielding council members, who remain divided. The United States and Britain are demanding that a new resolution authorize the use of military force against Iraq if it fails to comply with inspectors but France, Russia and China want Iraq to be given a chance to cooperate first, without a green light to attack.

In a General Assembly speech on Tuesday, Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri accused the United States of going “mad” when Iraq accepted the return of inspectors because it would deny them “the opportunity of invading Iraq and occupying it.”