October 20, 2002	Sunday	Sha'aban 13, 1423

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UNITED NATIONS, Oct 19: The United States has bowed to world opinion and offered a compromise Security Council resolution on Friday that does not call for the automatic use of military force against Iraq, while insisting it could still attack Baghdad without UN approval.

The new US position aimed at ending a five-week standoff would permit the council to consider authorizing force if chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix determined Iraq was not complying with UN resolutions, US officials said.

The Security Council session broke for the weekend on Friday and action on the US proposal was seen here as unlikely until next week.

US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Blix should report back to the Security Council which should then “deal with the problem”.

“Our preference is for the Security Council to take action if Iraq doesn’t comply,” he told reporters. “If they deal effectively with the problem, with the collective action, with military action or something, so much the better,” Boucher said.

“If they don’t, as we’ve stated in the congressional resolution and elsewhere, the president still has his authority. We’re going to deal with the problem one way or the other,” he said.

The probable draft to be put forward by the US will enable inspectors to assess if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is hiding weapons of mass destruction, backed by only an implicit threat of force, diplomats said.

It would set in place a two-stage process, reconvening the Security Council before any military attack on Iraq took place, they added.—Agencies