US: One of four wavering Republican senators who have voiced unease with President Bush's choice for ambassador to the United Nations seems to have fallen into line with the White House, making it more likely that the nomination will be approved on a partisan vote by a Senate committee today.
Confirmation of John Bolton, a strong critic of the UN, has been stalled for three weeks as senators investigated allegations that as a senior State Department official, he bullied subordinates and tried to manipulate intelligence on Cuban and Syrian weapons capabilities.
One of the Republican hold-outs, Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, said that he would reluctantly support Mr Bolton because he was the president's choice.
"I won't deny a lot of the information certainly brings great pause," he said, but the administration had the right to appoint its own team.
Acknowledging he had come under intense White House pressure, Senator Chafee added, however, "I'm doing the best I can to get the best information I possibly can so I can make a good decision."
The Senate foreign relations committee, which has a 10-8 Republican majority, is due to vote today on whether to recommend Mr Bolton's confirmation by the full Senate.
Another Republican critic, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said she remained inclined to vote for Mr Bolton but wanted to hear from him directly before today's vote, and Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said he had yet to learn anything about Mr Bolton that would keep him from supporting the nominee, but he would make his decision at the committee meeting.
Democratic senators said they did not plan to delay the vote but complained that the State Department had not provided all the information they had requested about Mr Bolton, who was in charge of non-proliferation in the department during Mr Bush's first term.
Senator Barbara Boxer of California wrote to secretary of state Condoleezza Rice saying there may or may not be incriminating evidence against the nominee in the papers they requested.
"But the refusal to provide these documents has the appearance of stonewalling members of the committee in an effort to prevent it from fulfilling its constitutional responsibility."
Democrats have also been trying to establish if Mr Bolton tried to spy on other government officials by seeking from the National Security Agency classified transcripts of telephone conversations in which they took part.
The deputy national intelligence director, Gen Michael Hayden, briefed the leaders of the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday in secret session about Mr Bolton's requests for details of intercepted communications.
Afterwards Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas and Democrat Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia refused to disclose to reporters what they heard, on the grounds that it was classified.