March 11, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 7, 1424

BERLIN, March 10: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will attend a UN Security Council meeting if there is a vote on a US-British draft resolution on Iraq, government spokesman Bela Anda said on Monday.

“Chancellor Schroeder plans to travel to New York for any vote of the UN Security Council on a new Iraq resolution,” Mr Anda said.

The 15 members of the Council could vote on Tuesday on the draft resolution, co-sponsored by Spain, giving Iraq until March 17 to comply with UN demands to disarm or face military action.

Anda stressed that it was not certain that a vote on the draft resolution would take place.

Schroeder told French President Jacques Chirac on Sunday in a telephone conversation that he agreed with the French initiative that heads of state and government should vote on any draft UN resolution on Iraq.

Anda said Schroeder was ready to participate but that it would “depend, in the end, on the way the situation develops” and on “the negotiations that have to take place.”

“Of course it also depends on others being ready to support the initiative of the French president,” he said.

The proposal for leaders to take part in any vote was one of several put to the UN Security Council on Friday in a speech by French Foreign Minister Dominque de Villepin.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has already rejected the proposal and a White House spokesman said on Friday that it was unlikely that US President George W. Bush would take part.

It is rare for all 15 heads of state and government to sit at the Council.

Speaking at the same press conference on Monday, a German foreign ministry spokesman said that a clear majority of members of the Council want the weapons inspectors in Iraq to continue their work.

“From the discussions so far at the Security Council there is a clear majority in favour of the UN disarmament inspections continuing,” said the spokesman.

Germany opposes military action and joined the Council as a non-veto holding member in January. Of the five permanent members, France, Russia and China are also opposed to war.

The US resolution would pass with nine votes, as long as no permanent Council members uses its veto.—AFP