UNITED NATIONS, March 16: The UN Security Council will hold closed-door consultations on Monday on French-German-Russian proposals on a disarmament timetable for Iraq, despite US insistence that the time for diplomacy is over.

“Security Council consultation on Iraq will be held on Monday...at 3:00 pm (2000 GMT) in connection with the joint declaration by France, Germany and the Russian Federation,” a UN spokesman said in a statement.

The announcement came despite the clearest indications yet that the United States has lost patience with the diplomatic process.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday he saw no point in holding a new UN Security Council meeting on Iraq at a time when differences were so profound.

“Right now I don’t see what purpose is to be served by another meeting when differences are so fundamental,” he said in a Fox News interview.

Powell’s comments were echoed by Vice-President Dick Cheney, who told NBC television that there’s no question we’re close to the end of the diplomatic efforts.”

Cheney also said that the French-German-Russian proposals to consider a 30-day deadline for Iraqi disarmament would not become a new topic for debate.

Asked if the suggestion was a non-starter, Cheney said: “I think it is.”

A further sign that Washington was moving onto a war footing came as Powell said the United States was on the verge of ordering many of its diplomats to leave the Middle East and Gulf.

“My personal advice is they ought to take a hard look at the situation they are in and it would be probably better for them to start leaving or making plans to leave,” he Powell told CNN.

Powell did not say exactly when the orders would be giving, deferring to the results of a summit later Sunday between US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in the Azores Islands.—AFP