UNITED NATIONS: All day the rumours swirled around the UN: the British were brokering a new deadline; the Americans had put war plans back from the 17th of March to the 24th; a new resolution would be tabled tomorrow, or maybe on Friday; Pakistan would abstain; Russia might drop its veto plans.
In the end, the only certainty was that the deadlock was continuing.
The UK-drafted resolution was still on the table, stating that Iraq will have missed its final chance to disarm unless it shows full co-operation by March 17th.
Early in the day, Britain's ambassador, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, told reporters that the UK was prepared to look at deadlines past March 17th. But he cautioned: "Don't look beyond March." Then Mr Martin Belinga-Eboutou, the ambassador from Cameroon, which holds the rotating chair of the council, appeared to say that the six undecided members - Cameroon, Angola, Guinea, Mexico, Chile and Pakistan - had proposed a 45-day deadline for Iraq to meet its disarmament obligations.
This was soon shot down by White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who told his midday briefing: "Any suggestion of 30 to 45 days is a non-starter." He did not, however, shut the door to compromise in the quest by the US and the UK for the magic nine votes which would allow Washington and London to claim a "moral majority" for war.
"The president thinks there is a litttle room for a little more diplomacy, but not much more time," said Mr Fleischer, who could not resist a shot at the French president, Jacques Chirac, now that the French are a lost cause. His message to the French, delivered to appreciative laughter in the press room, was that "it is too risky to have a laissez-faire attitude about weapons of mass destruction".
In Washington, President Bush worked the international lines all day, and at one point Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell said he thought that they were "within striking distance" of getting the nine votes.
The elements of a last-hope compromise resolution began to emerge late in the day. The US and Britain would propose that Iraq be given 10 days from the date the resolution was tabled to fulfil a series of disarmament tasks. These would include interviews with weapons scientists outside Iraq, accounting for all VX stores, accounting for outstanding stocks of anthrax, and turning over all information about missiles.
However, there was a feeling that the game was up for the Security Council. So far, Washington can still count on only four votes, its own and those of Britain, Spain and Bulgaria. The pressure will continue to achieve the figure of nine so that, as Ari Fleischer put it, the president will have "an opportunity to say that, despite a veto, the Security Council has spoken".
The frantic negotiations were given an air of unreality, diplomats commented, by the knowledge that, if France casts its veto, the deadline will fall, and the US will simply pick its own date for action. That was the unrelenting message from the White House: Saddam Hussein will be disarmed. "If one world body won't do this, another will," Mr Fleischer said, referring to the "coalition of the willing" which the US calls its 250,000-strong invasion force plus British and Australian additions.