UNITED NATIONS, Oct 8: The United States may delay vote on its revised Iraq resolution since it has been unable to secure majority votes in the 15 member United Nations Security Council.

Although the US Ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, expressed Bush administration’s desire to secure the council’s support before a donor meeting in Madrid later this month, he indicated at a press conference that if the US could not gather majority he might not call for a vote. Mr Negroponte is heading the council this month.

The US sponsored resolution received a major setback after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan all but ruled out any UN political role in Iraq while the US and Britain were still the occupying powers.

Most council members sought major revisions in the US draft, but Mr Negroponte said he made clear at the closed-door council meeting that any revised text would not vary much from the current draft.

“What I told the council members was that if in the coming days we put forward a resolution ... with the idea of bringing it to an early vote that they shouldn’t expect any significant or radical departures from the resolution that they have before them,” Mr Negroponte told newsmen.

Asked whether his use of the word “if” meant the US might not call for a vote on the resolution, he replied, “I just don’t want to forecast a specific timeframe at this point.”

However, he added, “I think the preferred position at the moment would be to try to get a resolution completed and voted and approved as quickly as possible.”

Diplomats at he council said if a vote was held on the current text, the US would probably get the minimum nine votes needed for adoption.

France, which threatened to veto a US resolution authorizing the war, has ruled out a veto on this resolution. But France would almost certainly abstain along with Germany, Russia, Syria and possibly China and Pakistan, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Mr Negroponte later reiterated that President Bush wanted a vote before the donor’s conference in Madrid, Spain, to help raise money for Iraq’s reconstruction.

The council, which was bitterly divided over the US-led war, is now split over the timetable for transferring power to Iraqis and the UN role in rebuilding the war-battered country.