• More U.S. ships and troops head to Gulf
• Baghdad looks for Arab support
• Israel discusses SCUD defenses
• Related stories and links

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As the United States sent more military might to the Persian Gulf, President Bill Clinton met with top advisers and worked the phones, weighing the options in the latest confrontation with Iraq.

Officials say all options are still on the table, but Defense Secretary William Cohen said Tuesday "time is running out" for a diplomatic solution.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said the United States was engaged in "public and private" diplomacy but said, "This is not a situation where we're looking for a negotiation. There's nothing to negotiate."

State Department spokesman James Rubin says Saddam Hussein must comply with United Nations weapons inspectors, with whom Iraq broke off cooperation with last month. If he continues to block inspectors, Rubin said, "he will be able to reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction in a matter of months, not years."

Clinton met Tuesday with his top advisers, including Vice President Al Gore, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, for 90 minutes Tuesday. He also talked on the phone with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At least one member of the international community is opposed to the military option. Sources tell CNN that Chinese diplomats meeting with their counterparts at the State Department want the United States to review Iraqi progress and perhaps ease sanctions as a way to get cooperation.

USS Enterprise

More U.S. ships and troops head to Gulf

Cohen announced that he had ordered the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and an accompanying battlegroup to speed up its deployment to the Persian Gulf, with the Enterprise now due to arrive by November 25. The Enterprise is expected to relieve the carrier USS Eisenhower, but the Pentagon could decide to keep both carriers there.

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is also headed in the general direction of the region but is not currently slated to head to the Gulf.

A three-ship amphibious ready group headed by the ship USS Belleau Wood is accelerating its deployment from Japan and is expected in the region by November 26. The group brings about 2,000 Marines as well as Harrier Jump Jets, Super Cobra attack helicopters and search and rescue capability.

The amphibious ready group headed by the USS Essex is already in the Persian Gulf. It is expected that the Belleau Wood group will replace the Essex group and not augment its capabilities.

Military sources say cruise missiles would be the likely choice for a military strike. The United States already has more than 300 ship-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles in the region.

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Baghdad looks for Arab support

Iraq reached out for support from the Arab community, hoping to leave the United States without regional support for a military strike.

Iraq's foreign minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, chose an Arab television station -- Qatar's Al-Jazeera -- for his first interview on the dispute. Al-Sahhaf warned that "any use of military force against Iraq would lead to destabilizing the region."

Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Nizar Hamdoon, said Iraq has kept diplomatic channels open through U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy in Baghdad. But Hamdoon also said, "We have to prepare ourselves for a strike obviously."

Iraq's trade minister also told a regional trade fair with delegates from 17 Arab countries that America "will lose from any strike that takes place, and Iraq will gain."

Iraqi officials said the U.N. sanctions imposed since the end of the Gulf War have hit their people hard. And they said as long as sanctions are in place, Iraq has nothing to show for years of accepting weapons inspections.

The latest showdown is a repeat of several crises since the end of the war, one of which occurred almost exactly one year ago. The United States and its allies did not take military action then, a decision one Iraqi expert calls a mistake.

Kenneth Pollack of National Defense University said Saddam Hussein felt he had not lost anything and perhaps gained something from previous crises. "In either of those circumstances," Pollack said, "it's worth something to him to try it again."

Pollack also said, "If our history with Saddam has taught us anything, it has taught us that the only thing that he responds to is the use of force."

Israel discusses SCUD defenses

Pentagon officials tell CNN that Israel has discussed with the United States the possibility of sending Patriot missile batteries to Israel for defense against possible Iraqi SCUD attack.

Since Israel already has a small number of Patriot batteries of its own, sold by the United States after the Gulf War, it is possible that U.S. Army Patriot battery troops could be sent to assist with the Israeli Patriot batteries.

Some movement of Iraqi troops in the north has the attention of intelligence officers. There is Iraqi troop activity along the Turkish border where Turkish troops have been skirmishing with out-of-favor Kurdish groups.

Intelligence also indicates some defensive movements of Iraqi troops moving into less vulnerable positions in case of a U.S. strike. Some anti-air defenses have also been moved into more easily defended positions, but many still remain in garrison.

Correspondents Eileen O'Connor, Carl Rochelle, Jane Arraf, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.