US may drop Iraq resolution

US may drop Iraq resolution

Hundreds of US warplanes are ready to strike

The United States has raised the possibility of abandoning attempts to agree a new United Nations Security Council resolution on disarming Iraq.

As France maintained its opposition to American-led military action, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said: "The options are to go for a vote and see what members say - or not go for a vote."

In a move to help British efforts to secure a new resolution - and reduce some of the domestic political pressure on Prime Minister Tony Blair - the US has also dropped its insistence that a vote should be held this week.

Negotiations at the UN are now thought likely to continue throughout Friday and the weekend.

The US, which has built up a massive military presence in the Gulf region, has consistently said that it is prepared to go to war without UN backing.

BBC diplomatic correspondent Barnaby Mason says the next move will partly depend on whether the Americans and the British conclude that a French veto of a proposed resolution is inevitable.

French plan

The US announcements came after France outlined its own proposals to achieve disarmament.

France - which, along with Russia, has said it will veto any resolution containing a military ultimatum - had earlier rejected the latest British proposals for breaking the deadlock in the divided UN Security Council.

These envisaged setting out six "tests" that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would have to follow in order to avoid military action.

I find extraordinary that without even proper consideration, the French Government have decided that they will reject these proposals

Jack Straw
UK Foreign Secretary

Click here for UK key tests

France's stance led to harsh criticism by the British Government, which said France had injected poison into the diplomatic bloodstream and had rejected Britain's plan even before the Iraqis.

But the French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, said his country was open to "all solutions" in order to preserve the unity of the Security Council.

He said the aim was "to try, within the logic of the (UN weapons) inspectors' work, to determine both a work programme with benchmarks, with criteria, and a realistic and reasonable timeframe, that will allow forward movement on the path of peaceful disarmament of Iraq".

But it remains highly improbable that the French would accept any tests which, like the British proposal, involve the immediate threat of war.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer responded: "If you reject the logic of ultimatum then you are saying Saddam has forever to disarm.

"France seems to think Saddam will disarm on his own. The United States and many other countries do not agree."

Annan's appeal

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has appealed to members of the Security Council to resolve their differences over Iraq and find a way of working together.

Mr Annan said that regardless of how the current issue was resolved, the council and the world body would have a role to play in Iraq, in the Middle East and on many other issues.

In other developments:

• A UN weapons inspector is killed in a car crash near the Iraqi capital Baghdad

• Iraq says it will present a report on its disposal of VX nerve agent on Friday, and on anthrax in a few days

• The US confirms it has deployed stealth bombers, its most advanced warplanes, for a possible war with Iraq, as well as moving about a dozen warships armed with Cruise missiles from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea

• Former Saudi Arabian Petroleum Minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani tells the BBC that if there is a war in Iraq, the main motive behind US action will be the security of oil supplies

• The Arab League describes Iraq's cancellation of a planned mission to Baghdad as a negative development

• The UN withdraws its observers from the Iraqi side of a demilitarised zone with Kuwait in what they say is a "precautionary step".