The US faced strong opposition against war in Iraq at a United Nations Security Council meeting today but Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Council members not to shirk their responsibilities next week when they meet on the crisis.
Mr Powell was among a dozen foreign ministers who came to New York to adopt a declaration on ways to combat global terrorism during a high-level Security Council session initiated by France.
But the Iraq crisis quickly crept into the public meeting and dominated private sessions with France and Germany appearing to forge a European unity against an attack.
"We must not shrink from our duties and our responsibilities when the material comes before us next week," Mr Powell said, departing from his prepared speech on terrorism and repeating the tough warning several times.
"We cannot be shocked into impotence because we are afraid of the difficult choices that are ahead of us," he said, referring to a January 29th Security Council meeting to evaluate a January 27th report by UN arms inspectors.
But French Foreign Minister Mr Dominique de Villepin hinted at a veto of a possible Security Council resolution authorising war should such a measure come to a vote, especially if the Bush administration intervened unilaterally in Iraq.
"In the event of a second resolution...we will not associate ourselves with military intervention that is not supported by the international community," Mr de Villepin said.
"Using force would only be an ultimate resort, assuming that every other possibility has been exhausted," he told a news conference. "We believe that today, nothing justifies envisaging military action."
In a preview of next week's meetings, German Foreign Minister Mr Joschka Fischer gave a solid "no" to military action in his first statement to the council since Berlin joined the 15-member body in January.
"We are greatly concerned that a military strike against the regime in Baghdad would involve considerable and unpredictable risks for the global fight against terrorism," he said. "These are fundamental reasons for our rejection of military action."
And China's foreign minister, Mr Tang Jiaxuan, argued for giving UN weapons inspectors more time to search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction after January 27th. "I believe this report actually is not a full stop of the inspection work but rather a new beginning," Mr Tang said. But Mr Powell shot back, saying January 27th was "not the beginning."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said "time was running out" for President Saddam Hussein and his "cat and mouse" game. Straw said that Britain, Washington's closest ally, preferred a UN resolution authorising force but said Iraq needed to comply with its obligations.