Even money for UN agreement on Iraq

WASHINGTON - The United Nations Security Council debate over a new resolution on Iraq appeared finally to be drawing to a close yesterday, but the White House said there was only a 50-50 chance of reaching an agreement.

"I think that the end is coming into sight," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Fleischer said the outcome would be "either an agreement or a failure to reach agreement, and it could be either one right now".

A revised United States proposal aimed at ending a month-long deadlock over Iraqi weapons inspections met fresh resistance in the Security Council from veto-holding countries Russia and France.

A top Russian official said Moscow was confident the Security Council would be able to draw up a text acceptable to all sides.

"We believe that these consultations will manage to agree on a text acceptable to all, which will be a real basis for a way out of this crisis," Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said.

The United States is considering forcing a Security Council vote on Iraq despite continued objections to its draft resolution, diplomats said.

US Ambassador John Negroponte could push the resolution to a vote next week or shortly thereafter, daring Russia and possibly France to veto it, or he could withdraw the resolution entirely.

The United States would then make its own decisions about any attack against Iraq.

In Baghdad, Iraq accused the United States of wanting war - with or without Security Council backing.

Baghdad's official al-Thawra newspaper said in a front-page editorial: "There is no need for the Security Council to adopt a new resolution.

"The US objective is to find a new pretext to launch its aggression on Iraq after all its other pretexts failed, and to try to find a fake international cover for this aggression."

And Iraqi President Saddam Hussein vowed that Baghdad was prepared to defend its ideals.

Iraq's official INA news agency quoted Saddam as saying Iraq "was determined to fight to defend its principles, goals and role".

The United States accuses Iraq of developing weapons of mass destruction - a charge Baghdad denies.

Washington has been pushing for a tough new UN resolution on weapons inspections, backed by the threat of force, but fellow Security Council members have held out for a more measured initiative.

Faced with stiff opposition, the Bush administration has dropped an earlier demand for explicit UN authorisation for military action.

But in insisting on intrusive UN weapons inspections, the new US draft recalled that Iraq had been warned of "serious consequences" and said Baghdad was in "material breach" of UN resolutions.

Russia and France, backed by China, fear this is a hidden trigger to attack Iraq, while diplomats said Washington considered it a warning for Baghdad to take UN Security Council demands seriously.

Britain, also a veto-holding Security Council member, said yesterday it backed the new US draft.

"Nobody wants military action," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said, but added that the best chance of avoiding that was for the toughest possible message to come from the international community.

Passions in the region remained high over Iraq. Syria said Washington had shown "blind bias" towards Israel by ignoring the Jewish state's nuclear weapons and defiance of UN resolutions while threatening to attack Iraq over those very issues.

In Moscow, chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix continued discussions on the resumption of weapons inspections in Iraq after a four-year hiatus.

- REUTERS

Further reading
Feature: War with Iraq

Iraq links and resources