UNITED NATIONS, March 8: Members of the deadlocked United Nations Security Council were given an ultimatum on Friday to be prepared to vote on a US/Britain-Spain sponsored amended resolution from “Tuesday onwards.”

Talking to reporters after several hours of closed door meetings US ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, said on Friday: “There will be no vote on Monday but we are advising delegations to advise their governments to be prepared to vote as early as Tuesday, from Tuesday onwards.”

The US, Britain and Spain on Friday amended their draft resolution to include a March 17 ultimatum for Iraq to obey disarmament demands or face war in an effort to get wavering council members to support possible military action. The ultimatum has been flatly rejected by France.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin has said if the new draft were to come to a vote next week, as Washington plans, the heads of state of all 15 members of the Security Council should come to New York for the debate.

“France believes that to make this choice, to make it in good conscience in this forum of international democracy, before their people and before the world, the heads of state and government must meet again here in New York, at the Security Council,” he told the council.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell quickly rejected the French proposal saying:

“At the moment, I don’t see a particular need for a heads of state and government meeting at the Security Council, which really isn’t the place to deal with issues like this”.

The French foreign minister has said the idea of an ultimatum,” reflects the logic of war. We don’t accept this logic.”

At the open meeting on Friday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw repeatedly called France’s foreign minister by his first name and the staid atmosphere abruptly changed.

Laughter erupted the first time Mr Straw referred to Dominique de Villepin as simply “Dominique.”

Citing the French foreign minister’s speech, in which de Villepin noted heavy pressure from Britain and the United States, Mr Straw said: “Dominique ... with due respect to my good friend and colleague, I think it’s gone the other way around.”

Diplomats accustomed to niceties in addressing each other in public calling a foreign minister by his or her first name during an internationally televised Security Council meeting drew attention. And the British foreign secretary repeated it several times throughout his speech, drawing murmurs and, eventually, applause from ministerial staff members in the balcony.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, whose country sides with France, is nonetheless a friend to both. “I know my friend Jack Straw. I don’t want to comment on his performance,” he said outside the chambers.