Discussion of a key UN resolution on disarming Iraq has been postponed as France diplomats analyse a draft resolution to search for common ground with the US.
The five permanent members of the Security Council were due to debate the draft resolution yesterday but that meeting was delayed by French officials wanting more time to review the US text.
According to reports, the source of the problem is whether the resolution's wording threatens an automatic attack on Iraq if Iraq violates UN rulings or whether such an attack would have to be debated by the Security Council first.
French President Jacques Chirac has said his country is opposed to automatic military action but he denied there was any conflict with the US. British Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw yesterday issued a blunt warning that Britain and the US reserved the right to launch military action against Iraq, with or without a new UN mandate.
He sought to step up pressure on France and Russia to accept a new draft UN resolution on Iraqi weapons inspections, tabled on Thursday night by the US, making clear Britain and the US would go it alone if they failed to secure agreement.
"We reserve the right to act within international law in respect of the use of force which may or may not be covered by a new resolution," Mr Straw told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
"It is entirely appropriate for America, as for us, to reserve their position if the United Nations does not meet its responsibilities.
His comments echoed US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell who said that America believed it already had sufficient authority to take action against Iraq.
"The United States does not need any additional authority, even now, if we felt it was necessary to take action to defend ourselves," he said.
"The United States is now operating behind the authority given to the President by a joint resolution of the Congress."
The ambassadors of the five permanent Security Council members - Britain, the US, France, Russia and China - were due to be meeting in closed session last night at the UN in New York to discuss the new US text setting out conditions for the return to Iraq of the UN weapons inspectors.
Although it is thought to soften the wording of an earlier Anglo-US draft, it was still said to authorise the use of "all necessary measures" - a green light for military action - if the Iraqis failed to comply with the inspection regime.
PA