US President George W. Bush and top aides began lobbying the other 14 UN Security Council members for a new resolution the White House billed on Friday as a final test of UN willingness to disarm Iraq.
Bush set off the lobbying round with a phone call from his ranch in Texas to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, expressing support for the council as the US and Britain prepare to offer a resolution next week that would set the stage for a possible war to enforce UN disarmament demands of Iraq.
The resistance of Security Council veto-holders France, Russia, and China to an early war make the US quest for a resolution authorizing force an uphill battle.
Secretary of State Colin Powell called the foreign ministers of Security Council members Bulgaria, Mexico and Chile as he flew to Japan to start a four-day Asian trip.
"I told all of them that we are at work on language for another resolution and that we expected to table such a resolution early next week," Powell told reporters on his plane.
Powell said he expected the resolution to be "straightforward, direct."
It would say that Iraq had not complied with a Security Council disarmament resolution adopted last November and, "therefore the council has to consider appropriate action on the resolution or other action the council might choose to take."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer suggested the new resolution would be a final opportunity for the UN to act before the US bypasses the body to lead its own coalition to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and eliminate Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction programs.
"Given the fact that this is in reality the 18th resolution [on Iraq], the president does not think there needs to be a 19th. So this is a very important moment for the United Nations to decide whether or not it will act," Fleischer said.
Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice are expected to contact leaders of each Security Council member in the coming days, discussing the language of the resolution and seeking support, Fleischer said.
"There are 15 votes. Every vote is important," he said. Germany, however, was already expected to vote against any measure paving the way for war on Iraq, he added.
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