UNITED NATIONS, Oct 31: The UN security council appeared to be edging closer on Thursday to a new tough weapons control regime for Iraq, as Baghdad kept up its protests and Washington announced the deployment of heavy bombers closer to the Gulf.

In London a British government official said a compromise warning Iraq of “serious consequences” — diplomatic language for military action — could be ready for adoption by the UN next week.

“There has been a bit of progress” in the talks, the official told journalists on condition of anonymity.

“Discussions will need to go on for a few days, we are looking at next week now” for the resolution to be fixed, the source said.

France and Russia, who have veto power along with China, Britain and the United States, oppose wording containing “hidden triggers” for the automatic use of military force against Iraq.

They want it clear that “serious consequences” would follow future violations of Iraq’s obligations and not punish past breaches.

They also insist that it is for the Security Council, and not individual states, to determine whether Iraq has failed to cooperate with UN arms inspectors and decide what course of action to follow.

Should Iraq fail to comply with a compromise resolution, the Security Council “would meet immediately and any decision would depend on circumstances”, the British official said.

“There could be another resolution following on from that meeting.”

He added that the message of the first resolution would be that “any failure by Iraq (to comply) would have serious consequences... there may be serious consequences if for example inspectors discover evidence of a significant ommission by Iraq, for example, concealing a weapons of mass destruction programme.”

China meanwhile said it had noted US and British efforts to modify a resolution on Iraq, but still refused to specify what action it supported beyond a rapid return of the arms inspectors.

“The Chinese side has noted that the United States and Britain have made some modifications ... and have addressed some of the concerns of China, Russia, France and other Security Council members,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

“China will continue to maintain a constructive attitude with other Security Council members on the issue in order to push forward a consensus in the Security Council and enable the UN arm inspectors to return as soon as possible to do their work.”—AFP