Russian officials shunned Britain's compromise plan for disarming Iraq yesterday, calling any resolution sanctioning war unacceptable, but they flagged a forthcoming report by UN arms inspectors as potentially vital to breaking the diplomatic deadlock.
"The latest British suggestions . . . are unacceptable and could not be a basis for finding consensus," the Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Yuri Fedotov, said.
"They only strengthen the ultimatum in the US-British-Spanish proposal . . . and open the way to the start of military action against Iraq," Mr Fedotov said, adding that the opposition of the overwhelming majority of UN Security Council members to a military solution in Iraq might well force the authors of the draft to scrap plans to put it to a vote, having already delayed tabling the proposal while trying to drum up support among the council's 15 member-states.
Moscow wanted to study an alternative draft mandate from six of the council's non-permanent members, Mr Fedotov said. The countries - Pakistan, Cameroon, Mexico, Guinea, Angola and Chile - have faced fierce US pressure to support giving Iraq until Monday to destroy its alleged cache of banned weapons or face war.
"These countries think the draft resolution should not contain a 'trigger' for using force. That is undoubtedly a strong point of these proposals," he said, while admitting that details of the draft were still sketchy.
Mr Fedotov said Dr Hans Blix, the chief UN arms inspector, should play a key role in discussing any new resolution, and that his forthcoming plan for future inspections work would make specific demands of President Saddam Hussein.
"\ will be ready to present it next week," Mr Fedotov said. "The programme will contain a list of remaining concrete tasks regarding the disarmament of Iraq, and concrete time limits."
Russia, which has major oil interests in Iraq and hopes to recoup $8 billion in debt from Baghdad, has suggested it may use its Security Council veto to block a resolution sanctioning force, despite warnings from Washington's ambassador to Moscow this week that such a move could severely damage US-Russian relations.
"Informed diplomatic sources" at the UN told Ria that Mr Blix's recommendations could help forge consensus in the Security Council early next week.
The sources said the US and Britain may agree to give Mr Saddam a "last chance" to disarm based on proposals from the arms inspectors, perhaps placing one or two key demands before Baghdad with time limits, rather than the current British demands that critics say would be impossible to fulfil by Monday.