Diplomats - Iraq discussions end in bitter disagreement

UNITED NATIONS -- A Security Council meeting on Iraq ended in bitter disagreement Thursday with council members unable to agree on basic issues such as a timetable for weapons inspectors to report next to the council.

Diplomats described a terrible atmosphere within the council, which met behind closed doors for four hours Thursday.

The council is split between those who are supporting the Bush administration's calls for the use of force to disarm Saddam Hussein, and others, led by the French, who want to continue weapons inspections.

At the end of the session, French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said the majority of the council still opposed a U.S.-backed draft resolution and he pushed the French proposal for additional time for inspections.

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte didn't speak with reporters though Washington's quest for support on its resolution appeared to be picking up steam with several undecided council members.

Still, ambassadors who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Americans seemed unwilling to compromise in order to achieve council unity on Iraq.

Ambassadors said there was little actual discussion about the merits of the U.S. resolution, which is backed by Britain and Spain, or the French proposal. And they couldn't agree on when the chief inspectors should next report to the council or how they should proceed with their work in the meantime.

'Very limited' results

Secretary-General Kofi Annan's office was reviewing a 17-page report from chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix detailing the work of his staff in Iraq over the past three months.

In the report, Blix says inspections have produced "very limited" results so far, according to diplomats who read the report.

Other sections of the report cited positive examples of Iraqi cooperation, but said it was "hard to understand why a number of the measures which are now being taken could not have been initiated earlier. If they had been taken earlier, they might have borne fruit," Blix wrote.

Blix said Wednesday that Iraq still hasn't committed to disarming but he appeared to push for continued weapons inspections as a peaceful way to disarm Saddam Hussein.

Russia has been pushing for a diplomatic solution to the crisis but in a telephone call Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush pledged to continue consultations on Iraq, the Kremlin said.

"Both sides expressed the intention to increase work in the U.N. Security Council with the purpose of developing a plan of action that would guarantee the interests of the entire world community," the Kremlin press service said in a statement.

Bush said Wednesday that while the Iraqi regime still has time to avoid war, U.S. troops are ready for battle. He called on allies for their support.

"The danger posed by Saddam Hussein and his weapons cannot be ignored or wished away," Bush said in Washington.

The U.S. draft resolution authorizing war was presented earlier this week by the United States, Britain and Spain.

There was some evidence that Bush was gaining ground for military action, including signals that Mexico had changed its strong anti-war stance and was now preparing to back the U.S.-driven resolution.

Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca was in Pakistan on Thursday to lobby for its vote.

Islamabad has not revealed whether it would support the U.S. resolution, although Pakistani diplomats had said privately they would likely abstain in any vote. There's almost no possibility that Pakistan would vote against the United States, and some within President Pervez Musharaff's administration say Islamabad is considered voting with Washington.

But some undecided council countries, such as Chile, pushed for a Canadian plan aimed at reconciling bitter differences between the U.S. resolution and the French-led proposal. Chile's ambassador said Mexico also was interested in finding a middle ground within the council.

The Bush administration on Wednesday rejected the Canadian ideas, which were aimed at giving Iraq until the end of March to complete a list of disarmament tasks that inspectors are compiling.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the proposal "only procrastinates on a decision we all should be prepared to take."

Meanwhile, State Department officials continued to press Bush's case in world capitals, and some U.S. officials said intense negotiations to stave off a veto from Russia yielded some results.

The administration may have won new ammunition for its position from Blix. He said Wednesday, shortly before submitting a quarterly update on his team's work, that Baghdad has not taken "a fundamental decision" to disarm.

Blix welcomed recent Iraqi letters that contained new information about its weapons programs but said they did not represent "full cooperation or a breakthrough."

Nonetheless, he noted that inspections resumed only in November after a four-year break and asked: "Is it the right time to close the door?"

Key Iraq developments

Two days before a U.N. deadline, Iraq agreed "in principle" to destroy its Al Samoud 2 missiles. But it wasn't immediately clear whether Iraq's letter to chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix constituted an unconditional acceptance and whether Iraq would meet the Saturday deadline to begin the destruction, as Blix has ordered.

Blix says in a draft report to the United Nations that Iraq's disarmament efforts have been "very limited so far."

The U.S. military buildup for war topped 200,000 troops in the Gulf region. President Bush called anew for Saddam Hussein's "total, complete disarmament" and defended his father for stopping short of ousting the Iraqi president in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

U.S. intelligence has detected the movement of some elite Iraqi army troops into new positions. In recent days, trucks have been sent to the north to pick up members of Saddam's Republican Guard and reposition them around his hometown of Tikrit, defense officials said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush spoke by telephone and pledged to continue consultations on Iraq, the Kremlin said.

An estimated 100,000 chanting protesters crammed Cairo's main stadium in Egypt's largest demonstration against the U.S. threats of war against Iraq.

South African disarmament experts visiting Iraq said they are convinced Baghdad is doing its best to disarm.