Russia and France say the U.N. Security Council is still nowhere near agreeing how to disarm Iraq and the United States has expressed growing impatience at the deadlock.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov criticised the latest proposed U.S. resolution despite the Bush administration's efforts to compromise by dropping an earlier controversial demand for explicit U.N. authorisation for military action against Iraq.
"The draft put forward by the Americans does not at all meet (the Russian) criteria," Ivanov said in televised remarks. "Active consultations will therefore continue on this issue both within the Security Council and outside it."
France - one of the five permanent Security Council members along with Russia, the United States, Britain and China - said it was studying the new U.S. draft but stressed there was still much work to be done to reach a consensus.
"We have indeed just received a revised text from the Americans and we are examining it with the aim of reaching an overall balance which is acceptable to all parties," Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters in Luxembourg.
"Some progress is still needed and so we have much work to do," he said.
The new draft resolution holds open the threat of force by declaring Iraq in "material breach" of U.N. resolutions and warning Iraq of "serious consequences" if it does not comply.
The White House signalled that U.S. patience was limited, with spokesman Ari Fleischer saying, "The United Nations does not have forever."
He said the United States would remain engaged at the world body, but added, "It is coming down to the end, and we'll continue to work it and see when we get an agreement, if we get an agreement, how to proceed."
Fleischer, speaking to reporters on Air Force One as U.S. President George W. Bush travelled to Pennsylvania, played down comments by Bush on Monday suggesting that if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were to comply with all U.N. resolutions, that may satisfy U.S. policy seeking "regime change" in Iraq.
Iraq denies U.S. accusations that it has chemical and biological weapons and is seeking to acquire nuclear arms. It has barred U.N. arms inspectors for the last four years, but has said in recent weeks that the inspectors can now return.