Baghdad, Iraq ? Iraq agreed Friday to begin destroying its Al Samoud 2 missiles within 24 hours, Iraqi sources said. Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, who set today’s deadline, called the decision “a very significant piece of real disarmament.”

The destruction of the finned white rockets is seen as a key test of Baghdad’s resolve to disarm and avert a U.S.-led war. Predictably, the 11th-hour concession was greeted with celebration by governments opposed to war and skepticism by those advocating it.

At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer dismissed the idea that the Iraqi move reflected progress. “This is the deception the president predicted.

“We do expect that they will destroy at least some of their missiles,” he said. But President Bush won’t settle for anything less than full disarmament, Fleischer added, without specifying what that would mean.

Iraqi sources in the capital, speaking on condition of anonymity, said destruction of the missiles would start today.

“We have accepted destruction of those missiles, although they do not constitute a serious violation of the U.N. resolutions, but we want to remove any pretext that there may be to wage aggression against Iraq,” Iraq’s deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, told delegates to a conference in Mexico City by telephone.

European governments opposed to war said Iraq’s decision on the missiles reinforced their opinion that weapons inspections were weakening Saddam Hussein’s military capabilities.

“It is an important step in the process of the peaceful disarmament of Iraq,” French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said. “It confirms that inspectors are getting results.”

In New York, a deeply divided 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 inspections. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia would veto the U.S.-backed resolution if needed to preserve “international stability.”

Blix ordered Iraq to begin destroying the missiles by today after examining 40 test flights. In 13 of them, the missile flew farther than the 93-mile limit set by U.N. resolutions after the 1991 Gulf War. In 27 test flights, the missile flew below the limit.

Iraq is believed to have between 100 and 120 of the missiles.