US: The US met the four other key United Nations Security Council members yesterday as it prepared to distribute a new draft resolution that would tighten weapons inspections in Iraq, diplomats said.
The latest US proposals offer a compromise that drop explicit authorisation to use force against Iraq. But they still provide some legal cover to attack Baghdad with a warning of serious consequences if Iraq obstructs inspections and a citing of its "material breach" of past UN resolutions.
There has been no meeting of the permanent five council members with veto power for two weeks. But intense telephone negotiations have been conducted among Foreign Ministers of the five - the US, France, Russia, Britain and China. "This is the first meeting on this subject among the five in a while and we might actually be moving forward," said a representative of one council member.
The new US draft gives arms inspectors a central role, as demanded by most countries around the world and requests a report from the arms experts before any possible military strike.
Chief UN inspector Mr Hans Blix is to leave for Moscow for talks with top Russian officials on preparations for inspections. In 1998, Russia bitterly criticised the inspectors, and their then leader, Mr Richard Butler, for not consulting with the Security Council.
Today and tomorrow, Mr Blix is scheduled to meet Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, and, Mr Yuri Fedotov, a senior Foreign Ministry official.
Both Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell and President George Bush's national security adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, stressed on Sunday the need for quick inspections to test Iraq's pledges to co-operate.
"The world is going to have to have a zero-tolerance view if he is unwilling to co-operate this time," Ms Rice said on CNN's Late Edition. Mr Powell, on ABC's This Week program said inspectors would be withdrawn if they could not function.
France, which has led the resistance to the original tough resolution, is bound to make further demands before any vote in the full 15-member council can take place. Although US officials stress Washington could strike Iraq at any time in self-defence and without UN approval, even close ally Britain would have second thoughts about joining a military action without some kind of new UN Security Council resolution.
Bowing to worldwide criticism, the Bush administration deleted from its revised text a provision that automatically authorised a UN member, such as the US, to use "all necessary means" whenever it decided Iraq had violated UN disarmament demands.
Instead, the new US proposals would call on UN weapons inspectors to report to the Security Council any violations by Baghdad. This could delay any military strike Washington has in mind as the Security Council would then meet to consider action.