US, Britain and Spain to hold Iraq crisis summit

11.30am

WASHINGTON - Leaders of the United States, Britain and Spain will hold an emergency summit on Sunday in a last-gasp diplomatic effort to overcome opposition in the UN Security Council to a resolution paving the way for war on Iraq.

President Bush will travel to Portugal's Azores islands, 1500km west of the European mainland, to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in a "final pursuit" of a UN resolution on disarming Iraq, the White House said today.

The three leaders, all facing anti-war opposition of varying degrees at home, are the sponsors of a UN resolution that would set the stage for war on Iraq. The measure is the subject of a bitter fight among members of the UN Security Council and its fate is uncertain.

"In an effort to pursue every last bit of diplomacy the president will depart Sunday morning for the Azores ... to discuss prospects for resolving the situation peacefully with diplomacy in final pursuit of a United Nations resolution," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Amid diplomatic manoeuvring aimed at reaching a compromise, Security Council member Chile proposed giving Iraq a three-week deadline to disarm as a way to break the deadlock. Iraq would have to carry out five specific disarmament tasks or face the consequences, including war.

The United States, Britain and Spain have pursued a shorter deadline. Chilean President Ricardo Lagos said in Santiago that a deadline of three weeks was "short and realistic."

Washington swiftly rejected it as a "non-starter."

US officials said the summit, to be held at a US air base at Lajes on the island of Terceira, should not be considered a war council but rather an effort to find unity on the Security Council in hopes of forcing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to give up power without war.

"If the Security Council is able to pass a resolution, much like what has already been discussed by the United States, the British and the Spanish, it is still possible for Saddam Hussein to see the writing on the wall and to get out of Iraq and therefore preserve peace," Fleischer said.

As he heads toward a war in which Arab support would be vital, Bush said the United States would unveil a long-delayed Middle East peace plan which envisions a Palestinian state once the Palestinians confirm a new prime minister with "real authority" to act.

Bush did not mention Iraq in brief remarks. He took a tough line against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a key objection of the Palestinians and other Arabs. "As progress is made toward peace, settlement activity in the occupied territories must end."

Shortly after Bush spoke, Blair called a news conference in London to express his commitment to finding a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by 2005.

Washington says that it can attack Iraq without clear UN backing but Russia, Germany and France all refused to drop opposition to any rapid military action by 250,000 US and British troops massed in the Gulf region.

The United States, Britain and Spain have drawn up a resolution that sets Iraq a tough ultimatum to disarm or face invasion. So far only one other of the 15-nation Security Council -- Bulgaria -- has publicly backed the proposal.

A UN resolution needs nine of 15 votes to pass, with no vetoes. Six nations -- Angola, Chile, Cameroon, Guinea, Mexico and Pakistan -- are undecided about the resolution. It is backed by Britain, the United States, Spain and Bulgaria. France, Russia, China, Germany and Syria oppose it.

Washington accuses Baghdad of hiding weapons of mass destruction and diplomats say Bush might order a strike on Iraq in the coming days, impatient with the stiff opposition at the United Nations. Iraq says it has no such weapons.

French President Jacques Chirac, who has threatened to veto any UN resolution sanctioning war, told Blair that Paris was ready to seek a compromise about disarming Iraq but rejected any ultimatum leading to war.

A spokeswoman for Chirac said France was ready to discuss halting UN arms inspections before the end of a 120-day period which Paris has favored until now. Her account of a telephone call to Blair suggested little else new in Chirac's position.

In Baghdad, a top Iraqi preacher called on fellow Muslims to attack US interests worldwide in a holy struggle or jihad to defend Iraq against a US invasion.

"It is the duty of Muslims today, Iraqis and others, to threaten American interests wherever they are, to set them on fire and to sink their ships," Abdul-Razzaq Saadi said in a sermon at the Mother of All Battles mosque.

In a bruising dispute between allies, the United States, Britain and Spain failed on Thursday to persuade the Security Council to agree to their resolution.

Faced with such resistance, the United States said it might abandon efforts to get a UN vote altogether. It says last November's resolution 1441 is mandate enough.

But Blair, facing his worst political crisis over Iraq, is anxious for UN cover to assuage British public opinion, which is opposed to any military action without UN approval.

If there were no vote on a new resolution, the legal situation might be governed by Resolution 1441, which threatened "serious consequences" if Iraq did not disarm.

But if a new resolution were voted down, an attack against Iraq could be seen as a violation of international law.

The US navy said it was moving a dozen more warships from the eastern Mediterranean to the Gulf region, joining more than 60 other US ships arrayed against Iraq. Such a move could bring more cruise missiles to bear on Iraq.

In Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the ruling party, was formally appointed prime minister. The move kept alive US hopes that Turkey might approve deployment of US troops to join an invasion of Iraq, Turkey's neighbour to the south.

World oil prices slumped as market dealers anticipated that a US war against Iraq could start soon and finish quickly. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones index jumped by 1 per cent.