WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush is poised to declare that Iraq has, in the view of the United States, fallen far short of its requirement to provide a complete and accurate accounting of its weapons programs to the United Nations, senior administration officials said Tuesday.

But the officials said the Bush national security team is not pushing for immediate military confrontation.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a statement Wednesday that an initial assessment of Iraq's declaration revealed "some obvious omissions" and that the declaration would "fool nobody."

Bush was holding a regularly scheduled meeting of the National Security Council on Wednesday and the lead item on the agenda was to settle on an official response to Iraq's declaration to the United Nations.

The president's national security team is recommending that the United States declare that Iraq has violated U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 by failing to fully account for its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.

"They have failed the test and we will make it plain that they have done so," said a senior official familiar with the process.

As CNN has reported, U.S. officials believe Iraq has failed to account for mustard gas shells and other chemical and biological weapons known to be in its stockpile, and has provided little or no information about developments the United States says have occurred in its nuclear weapons program over the past decade.

Top members of the national security team met Tuesday to prepare for the Wednesday meeting. Senior officials said there is no recommendation to the president that he use the term "material breach" at this time, though the officials did not rule it out.

"Material breach" is the language in the U.N. resolution that is the trigger for possible "serious consequences" including military action.

"There is no recommendation to say 'material breach,'" said one official. "That doesn't mean there are not strong views that they are in material breach but that is not the pressing issue at the moment."

Non-permanent members of the U.N. Security Council began receiving their edited version of the Iraqi weapons declaration Tuesday night, more than a week after the United States and other permanent members got a full copy. (Full story)

U.N. resolution 1441, calling for Iraq to give a "currently accurate, full, and complete declaration" of its weapons programs, was unanimously passed by the Security Council on November 8.

Officials said the measured response from the Bush administration is part of an effort to make a strong presentation to the United Nations on what the administration views as deficiencies in Iraq's declaration.

Officials said administration's strategy is also designed to give weapons inspectors more time, and the United States will argue that deficiencies in Iraq's declaration should result in more aggressive inspections -- including use of a provision allowing inspectors to take Iraqi scientists out of the country for interviews.

The U.S. response also is a reflection of the political realities in the Security Council.

Other key members have said there is no justification for military action at this early stage in the inspections process and have argued it is the inspectors -- not the United States or any other Security Council member -- who carry the burden of deciding whether Iraq is in "material breach" of its obligations.

Aides say Bush has no short-term plans for a major speech offering an assessment of the Iraqi document and the U.S. strategy in reaction to it, although that could change.

Meanwhile, the two top U.S. defense officials said Tuesday that any potential war with Iraq will not be a "cakewalk" and the U.S. military must be prepared for a variety of contingencies if hostilities erupt. (Full story)