The US and Britain were to press their UN Security Council colleagues yesterday to authorize the use of force to disarm Iraq, despite strong opposition from several members.
They were expected to lobby undeclared members of the 15-member council to quash a challenge by France, Russia and Germany, which have openly opposed the draft US-British resolution presented late Monday.
Council president Gunter Pleuger of Germany said members would meet again tomorrow to consider both the US-backed proposal and a rival memorandum from France urging tougher inspections.
The US-British draft said Iraq had "failed to take the final opportunity" to scrap its banned weapons and referred to November's resolution 1441, warning of "serious consequences" if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein failed to meet UN demands.
Asked what it would take for Iraq to avert war, the US ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, said, "Only an absolutely drastic change in attitude -- a major, drastic, dramatic change."
Fears of an impending war sent the price of oil climbing to a 27-month high in London.
Saddam indicated in an exclusive interview with US television network CBS that he had no plans to comply with a UN demand to start destroying his banned al-Samoud 2 missiles by Saturday.
But his top adviser later said that the UN demand was still under consideration.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he expected to see "a dribble of concessions" from Saddam as the prospect of military strikes gathered momentum.
The Iraqi leader also challenged US President George W. Bush to a debate on the looming war. White House officials scoffed at the idea.
Meanwhile Iraq's Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Baghdad would help UN inspectors iron out all problems over its alleged weapons of mass destruction.
"Iraq is determined to continue its efforts to help with verification of all problems if [the UN] requests details," he said at a summit of developing nations in Kuala Lumpur, accusing Washington of trying to "dominate the world."
In the Kuwaiti desert, four US soldiers were killed when their Blackhawk helicopter crashed during night training, in the worst accident since the US-troop buildup in the region began.
Bush was to launch an "all-out diplomatic effort" to win the vote that Washington hopes will closely follow chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix's March 7 report to the council, the White House said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was to make a statement to parliament to shore up support for his Iraq policy and contain internal divisions, with rebel Labour party members threatening to embarrass the government on the issue.
His address is to be followed by a parliamentary debate in what is probably parliamentarians' last chance to tackle the Iraq crisis before war starts.
Popular opposition to military action in Britain has been rising in recent weeks, with the latest opinion polls indicating a majority now oppose war.
Washington faces an uphill battle on the diplomatic front, with France, Russia, China, Germany and Syria known to oppose military action.
Meanwhile, warplanes taking part in US-British patrols over a "no-fly" zone in southern Iraq attacked a mobile anti-aircraft missile system near Basra on Tuesday, the US military said.
The strike occurred at approximately 2:55pm about 394 km southeast of Baghdad in an area where Iraq's military has been threatening the air patrols, the US Central Command said in a release from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
US and British jets have increasingly struck at air defense missiles, radars and communications for months in northern and southern "no-fly" zones of Iraq even as the two countries have massed nearly 200,000 troops in the Gulf region since the year began for a possible invasion of Iraq.
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