With the UN Security Council deadlocked, the snap summit of the US, British and Spanish leaders on the Azores tomorrow is expected to focus on how to end the diplomatic process before almost certain war with Iraq in the coming days.
US President George Bush, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, and the Spanish Prime Minister. Mr Jose Maria Aznar, will meet in the Portugese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean in what US officials described as the "final pursuit" of a UN resolution.
"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 Mr Ari Fleischer said.
Mr Bush's National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, said the summit "was an opportunity to assess where we are and how the United Nations process can come to a conclusion".
The recent British initiative at the UN, setting a series of tests for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to prove he has disarmed by a deadline of March 17th, is now considered dead, diplomats said. One well-informed diplomat predicted that Saddam Hussein would be given no later than Friday before facing war.
The US, Britain and Spain had co-sponsored a resolution at the UN declaring that Iraq had missed a final chance to disarm if he did not show full and immediate compliance with Resolution 1441. Britain had added several tests for the Iraqi leader to try to secure broad support.
Despite several days of intensive personal lobbying of world leaders by Mr Bush and Mr Blair, a majority of the 15-member council still saw the resolution as an unacceptable trigger for an invasion of Iraq by 250,000 US and British troops massed in the Gulf region.
Russia and France, which have veto power, insisted that inspections were working to disarm Iraq and only one country, Bulgaria, said it would support the resolution.
A final spasm of activity at the UN yesterday ended yesterday when Chile decided not to take further a new initiative which might have got the support of the block of six swing votes, Chile, Mexico, Pakistan, Angola, Guinea and Cameroon.
Chilean President Ricardo Lagos proposed five disarmament conditions for Iraq to meet in three weeks, and did not include an ultimatum for war.
Mr Fleischer appeared to reject the proposal, saying he stated a period of 30 days was a non-starter four days ago and that "26 days was still a non-starter", but he refused to give a time-scale for US plans other than that diplomacy had reached "the point of finality".
French President Jacques Chirac called Mr Blair yesterday to say that Paris was "prepared to work together for Iraq's disarmament" but the threat of a French veto on any resolution leading to war remained, and the 10-minute conversation apparently did little to ease the bitterness between the two.
Speculation was rife at the UN that the outcome of the summit would be a decision to withdraw the resolution and that Mr Bush would return to Washington to address the nation on a decision to go to war, citing earlier UN resolutions as legal authority. Mr Bush had declared on February 6th that he would insist on a UN vote whatever the outcome, but a defeat at the Security Council would be a disaster for Mr Blair, who prefers to withdraw the proposal, diplomats said.
The summit would enable the US President to say he changed his mind in deference to European allies.
As the war loomed closer, Spain urged its nationals in Iraq to leave and Germany advised "urgently" against all travel to Iraq.
In a sign that it had given up also on getting Turkish military co-operation, the Pentagon began moving warships out of the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, where they could launch missiles on a path to Iraq that would not go over Turkey.
The Azores consists of nine islands in the mid-Atlantic and are home to an airbase used by US forces on the island of Terceira.