EU foreign ministers have stressed that the United Nations should be the driving force behind efforts to disarm Iraq and several have criticised US demands for a "regime change" in Baghdad.
France reaffirmed its opposition to a draft resolution threatening the use of force against Iraq and said setting regime change as a goal would violate international law. "We do not want to give carte blanche to military action," the French Foreign Minister, Mr Dominique de Villepin, wrote in Le Monde as the ministers met in Brussels to discuss Iraq and the Middle East.
Diplomats said the British Minister for Europe, Mr Peter Hain, briefed EU colleagues on efforts to persuade doubters, notably Russia and China, to accept a strong resolution, arguing it was essential to keep the UN in the driver's seat.
He said Moscow appeared to have backed away from saying there was no need for a new resolution but sought to tone down the US draft and avoid any green light for military action.
The Belgian Foreign Minister, Mr Louis Michel, led the charge against any military strike to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
"I am totally against an attack, I cannot support it," Mr Michel said. "If the conclusions of the arms inspectors are positive and prove that there really is a danger . . . then the Security Council will decide, but not now."
The Swedish Foreign Minister, Ms Anna Lindh, echoed his remarks. "It is not the objective of the UN to get rid of him. The objective and the goal is to get rid of the weapons of mass destruction," she said.
The German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, said his government's opposition to any military action against Iraq and refusal to take part in such a war had not changed, despite Bush administration charges that it has "poisoned" US-German ties.