The United States and Britain considered giving diplomacy more time today in the face of resistance at the United Nations to their plans for war to disarm Iraq and vast weekend peace protests around the world.
More than ten million people marched in a wave of global protest not seen since the Vietnam War, some of the largest crowds were in countries whose leaders have echoed the hawkish stance taken by US President George W. Bush.
There was little sign that the demonstrations, capped by a rally in Sydney today, had put off pro-war leaders, who say Baghdad is hiding illegal weapons that pose a global threat.
Indeed NATO, its credibility rocked by a bitter internal row over Iraq, was working on a compromise that would allow it to prepare measures to protect Turkey in the event of a war.
But diplomatic splits persisted, complicating efforts by Washington and London to win UN backing for military action to disarm Iraq and oust President Saddam Hussein, who denies concealing banned weapons from UN inspectors.
And Turkey, which would be in the front line in any conflict, warned Washington not to expect immediate permission to deploy tens of thousands of troops on its territory.
France, which won applause on Friday at the UN Security Council by insisting inspectors needed more time to investigate Iraq, repeated its call today, drawing criticism from Washington which said Paris was easing the pressure on Saddam.
Babel, newspaper of Saddam's eldest son Uday, said the protests and Friday's relatively positive report by UN weapons inspectors meant United States had suffered a decisive defeat.
Mr Bush's national security adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice said, however, that Washington was still working on winning support at the United Nations for a new resolution on Iraq. A senior British diplomatic source said the United States was prepared to spend longer trying to bring key UN Security Council members round after a showdown on Friday at which there appeared to be no majority for military action.