The UN Security Council has approved yet another year-long exemption from prosecution for US peacekeepers by a new global criminal court despite misgivings from the European Union.
The resolution was yesterday passed 12-0, with France, Germany and Syria abstaining and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan questioning the legality of the measure and urging the council not to make the immunity permanent.
A year ago the same resolution, which exempts nations that have not ratified a treaty establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC), was adopted by a 15-0 vote after the Bush administration threatened to veto UN peacekeeping missions one by one.
This year council members were said to be wary about rekindling another bruising fight with Washington after refusing to endorse the war in Iraq.
As the world's first permanent criminal court, the ICC was set up to try perpetrators for the world's worst atrocities - genocide, mass war crimes and systematic human rights abuses. It will begin work in The Hague later this year.
France did not use its veto power to kill the resolution but expressed displeasure by abstaining. It said the court had enough safeguards to prevent politically motivated trials.
But the Bush administration, which has rescinded former President Bill Clinton's signature to the treaty, argues no court should have jurisdiction over Americans without Washington's consent.
"The ICC is not the law," US representative James Cunningham told the council. "In our view, it is a fatally flawed institution".
The court cannot pursue crimes committed before July 1st, 2002 and can only try suspects if national governments are unwilling or unable to do so. But Mr Cunningham said such assurances were not enough.
Washington has signed bilateral agreements with 38 countries who promised not to prosecute US citizens anywhere as well as anyone under contract to the United States. It has threatened to withhold aid from those who refuse.
EU countries oppose the pacts as being too sweeping and have warned its candidates for membership not to sign them. In response the United States, in a memo to EU nations last week, warned the bloc was putting "further strains" on transatlantic relations since the debacle over Iraq.
Mr Annan - as well as Canada, Jordan, South Africa and other countries without council seats - argued the exemption resolution bordered on illegality. The council, they said, could exempt nations from prosecutions on a specific issue, such as a conflict the body was considering.
But Mr Annan said the ICC treaty "was not intended to cover such a sweeping request but only a more specific request relating to a particular situation".