UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler claims in a report to the U.N. Security Council that Iraq has failed to cooperate fully with his team of arms experts.

In the report, delivered to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan late Tuesday, Butler said Baghdad has not lived up to its promise to give unconditional access to U.N. inspectors trying to determine if Iraq has abandoned its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs.

"Iraq's conduct ensured that no progress was able to be made in either the fields of disarmament or accounting for Iraq's prohibited weapons program," Butler wrote.

The United States considers the report's findings "very serious," said State Department Deputy Spokesman James Foley.

Meanwhile, weapons inspectors early Wednesday were en route to the airport for an evacuation from Iraq - a necessary step in any American military attack.

U.N. sources said a plane which could accommodate the roughly 120 weapons inspectors was expected to land Wednesday morning from Bahrain to take out the inspectors.

The United States and Great Britain have warned they could launch airstrikes without warning if Iraq does not cooperate. Baghdad narrowly avoided such an attack in mid-November, when it pledged to resume working with U.N. inspectors.

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Foley said no decision to use military force had been made, but he added all options remain open. He said U.S. President Bill Clinton would study the report with his global policy advisers.

Since permitting arms experts to return, Iraq has allowed most inspections to take place without incident. But Iraqis have halted three of them, added new restrictions and refused to turn over all but one of 12 weapons-related documents Butler has requested.

Butler said the U.N. Special Commission, known as UNSCOM, had "clear evidence that Iraq had taken advance actions at certain of the locations planned for inspection in order to defeat the purposes of inspection."

As a result of this, Butler said he decided not to conduct the full range of inspections the team had planned.

"In light of this experience, that is, the absence of full cooperation by Iraq, it must regrettably be recorded again that the commission is not able to conduct the substantive disarmament work mandated to it by the Security Council and, thus, to give the council the assurances it requires with respect to Iraq's prohibited weapons programs," Butler wrote.

Iraqi version differs

In anticipation of Butler's report, Iraq released its own analysis of inspectors' actions Monday, saying the teams "were able to interview all individuals required and to reach all the sites they wished to inspect."

But the report accused several teams of carrying out its work in an "intrusive and provocative manner," even inspecting a private residence in an effort to provoke Iraq.

Iraq has demanded the Security Council begin a promised comprehensive review of Iraq's compliance with U.N. resolutions, believing it would eventually lead to the lifting of sanctions imposed on Iraq following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The Security Council has said it will not begin such a review unless Butler certifies Iraq has resumed full cooperation.

Before he received Butler's report on Tuesday, Annan indicated Iraq's cooperation had fallen short of his expectations, but said he expected the Security Council to go ahead with the comprehensive review.

"I am not sure that the comprehensive review is something Iraq deserves or does not deserve," he said. "I think the council itself would want to know, after eight years of sanctions, where it stands, what has been achieved, what needs to be done, and within what reasonable time frame it can be done."

United Nations Correspondent Richard Roth, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.