The United States took a revised resolution to the UN Security Council this afternoon which gives Iraq a "final opportunity" to comply with UN arms inspectors but leaves room for US military action.
The new text incorporates many changes suggested by council members but does not make major concessions, most of which had been rendered in a second version of the draft last month that dropped an explicit authorization for the use of force.
The Bush administration, after eight tumultuous weeks of negotiations with key nations on the council, hopes for a vote on Friday but this is still uncertain.
The revised draft, in what diplomats called "creative ambiguity" offers a follow-up consultation role for the Security Council as France had insisted.
But it falls short of French and Russian demands that the council authorise a use of force in a second resolution and leaves the United States free to take action after arms inspectors report violations.
"It's clear that the resolution will not handcuff the United States and the president also believes in the importance of consulting," White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said.
US officials were fairly confident that France, which led resistance to original American proposals, would agree to the new text. French diplomats said President Jacques Chirac was still reviewing the draft.
It is unclear whether Russia and China, who like France, feared a unilateral US military strike under the guise of United Nations approval, would agree to the resolution without further changes.
Russia's deputy foreign minister, Mr Yuri Fedotov, said today that Moscow remained opposed to provisions that would give Washington freedom to launch military action.
"We still believe that it is vital that the new resolution contains no automatic mechanism for the use of force," Mr Fedotov told the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Although the United States has called the resolution its "final offer," Western diplomats said a Security Council procedure would involve some alterations in order to get a large vote.
The draft is the third US version circulated among the council's five permanent and 10 elected rotating members since early last month.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin told ireland.comthat the Government would not be in a position to vote on the new draft resolution until it has been agreed (or at least not vetoed) by the permanent members of the Council.
A Security Council resolution needs a minimum of nine out of 15 votes for adoption and no veto from its five permanent members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.
Rather than threaten any veto, France at one point had enough support to deny the United States the nine votes. But Washington chipped away, gaining the support of doubters Mexico and Mauritius among others, diplomats said.