The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, will travel to tomorrow's emergency summit in the Azores offering a last chance for peace while ready to agree the final steps to war with Iraq.
Mr Blair will join President Bush and the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr José Maria Aznar, for a make-or-break assessment of the chances of securing majority backing in the UN Security Council for a second resolution on Iraqi disarmament, which they would regard as authorisation for force in the event of Iraq's continued non-compliance.
With at least two Cabinet resignations now threatened, securing the second resolution is crucial to Mr Blair's effort to avoid a major split inside the British Labour Party in the event of conflict. And with British hopes seemingly boosted by President Bush's announcement on the Middle East peace process, Downing Street has signalled a weekend of intensive diplomatic activity "in extra time".
At the same time, however, the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, has suggested diplomatic efforts to resolve the Iraqi crisis could be over within days. "Sadly, the diplomacy we have been involved in for many months may be coming to an end in days or weeks, but I hope not," he said yesterday after a meeting with Muslim leaders in his Blackburn constituency.
Mr Straw's gloomy assessment came after a reportedly "good- natured" telephone call between Mr Blair and President Chirac of France, which failed to shift French opposition to war. Downing Street - which on Thursday accused the French president of injecting "poison" into the diplomatic process - said both men maintained their "firmly held" views on the crisis.
Mr Blair's official spokesman said that while President Chirac was willing to examine the UK's draft proposals, the president repeated his opposition to any moves authorising or implying military action should President Saddam Hussein fail to satisfy the British "tests" on compliance.
Conservative leader Mr Iain Duncan Smith last night accused the French of "playing games" and again said he thought it unlikely there would now be a second UN resolution. Speaking on IRN radio, he said: "The purpose of the second resolution was that it was an ultimatum, and if the French president is not prepared to back that up - he is just playing games - I think it is unlikely there will be a second resolution." Denying making France a scapegoat, Mr Duncan Smith said: "I am just being realistic."
However, the Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, sparked a political row when he sided with President Chirac, rejecting British government claims that the French were acting "unreasonably" in threatening to use their veto in all circumstances, insisting they were rather "reflecting a large strand of international opinion".
Speaking at the start of his party's spring conference, however, Mr Kennedy made it clear that his party would unite behind British troops if and when they went into battle: "If British troops find themselves in a position where they will be committed into action, then at that point obviously we want to see the whole country as well as all of parliament unite in support of those troops."
Mr Kennedy said that should happen "whether we agree that our military personnel should have been placed at this time and in this way in such a situation." A Labour MP, Mr Tom Watson, branded Mr Kennedy "unhelpful, ill informed and anti-British".
In contrast to President Bush, Mr Blair made a direct linkage between the proposed publication of the "road map" for Middle East peace and the continuing crisis over Iraq.
And British diplomats in New York last night believed Mr Bush's announcement would boost efforts to win over the six undecided nations on the Security Council.
The British Ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, told the BBC: "I think it improves the atmosphere in some ways. I am sure that President Bush meant it to do that." However, in language which might have alarmed some Washington insiders, Sir Jeremy said he had been told to go "as many extra miles as necessary" in an effort to break the diplomatic log-jam.