UNITED NATIONS, Sept 27: US Secretary of State Colin Powell told a US Senate hearing on Thursday night that Washington and London had reached an understanding on the wording and structure of a proposed UN resolution on Iraq and he was sending envoys to France, Russia and China to hammer out a consensus.

The draft, sources said, would set a timeframe for Iraq to comply with the UN inspections regime and inspectors. If Baghdad failed to comply, the draft envisages a US-led military action to force compliance.

Diplomats told newsmen there would be no reference to any “regime change” in Iraq _ a key US demand.

Britain had suggested that a text acceptable to all nations should be submitted to the UN security council for consideration, diplomats said.

The United States is pushing for a new UN resolution which would include a tough language spelling out that president Saddam Hussein would face “serious consequences” if he did not allow weapons inspectors to proceed with their work. It would give it a two-month timeframe to comply.

France, a permanent member of the council with veto powers, is sceptical about any new resolution.

In Beijing, Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji said: “We request that Iraq comply with UN resolutions without any preconditions.” But he added that a decision by the United States to act outside the United Nations “will lead to severe consequences”.

This would mean giving UN weapons inspectors a chance to test Iraq’s promises before any military action is taken.

“A trigger whereby one member of the security council, like the United States, can immediately rush off to war would not be acceptable to the council,” one diplomat said. “The Brits are telling the US that.”

However, the open question is what would trigger a military strike against Iraq, and few council members would commit themselves before seeing a US text. “We are waiting to see the colour of American money, waiting to see what will come out of the box,” said one council member.

Agencies add: A senior US diplomat on Friday tried to convince France to approve a tough new UN resolution on Iraq, but French President Jacques Chirac refused to budge on the question of threatening the country with military force.

US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman met foreign ministry officials and Chirac’s top foreign policy aide to unveil a US-British draft resolution.

But in telephone talks with US President George Bush about the text, Chirac reiterated his opposition to any resolution that would allow for the use of force against Baghdad if it failed to cooperate with UN demands.

Chirac said Paris favoured a resolution that was “simple and firm, showing the unity and determination of the international community” to get weapons inspectors back into Iraq.

The statement appeared to derail Grossman’s push to win over key UN Security Council members France and Russia in a bid to break the standoff over future international action in Iraq.

According to sources in Paris, the US-British text calls for a toughening of UN inspections in Iraq.

It calls for possible military protection of weapons inspectors and an automatic right to use force if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein fails to comply, the sources said.

But in his conversation with Bush, Chirac again made clear France’s preference for two, rather than one, resolutions on Iraq — one on the return of UN arms inspectors to the country, and a second if Baghdad fails to comply.