February 25, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 23, 1423

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24: The United States and Britain circulated a new UN resolution on Monday that sets the stage for war with Iraq by declaring that Baghdad had failed to take advantage of its final opportunity to disarm peacefully.

But no vote on the document was expected for two weeks at the Security Council, where most members at this stage oppose a swift move to war.

The move opened an intensive period of diplomacy. France and Germany came out strongly against a new resolution and a shift to a “logic of war”, circulating a rival proposal which would extend U.N. inspections for at least four months.

The 12-paragraph draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, does not have a deadline and says simply that the Council “decides that Iraq has failed to take the final opportunity afforded to it in resolution 1441.”

Resolution 1441, adopted Nov. 8, 2002, gave Iraq a last chance to disclose any weapons of mass destruction programmes or be in “further material breach” of its obligations.

FRENCH PLAN: France, which has led the anti-war opposition that has strong support throughout the world, floated a “memorandum,” which would lengthen UN weapons inspections by about four months. Germany, Russia and China back the proposals.

It would bring in additional inspectors, give them more sophisticated equipment and require them to report on their progress to the council every three weeks.

In Berlin, French President Jacques Chirac said after talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder: “We see no reason in this context to change our logic, which is a logic of peace, and to switch to a logic of war.”

The United States and Britain are aiming at getting the minimum nine votes needed for adoption in the 15-nation Security Council and then dare France, Russia or China to use its veto power and kill the draft.

President George W. Bush said the U.N.’s future was at stake.—Reuters