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The United Nations Security Council ended another round of intense closed-door consultations Thursday without any agreement on Britain-proposed benchmarks to measure Iraq's compliance with its obligations to disarm.
"So far we have not yet been able to reach any kind of understanding on that document, but the process continues," US Ambassador to the UN John Negroponte said of the "side statement" to a US-British draft resolution on Iraq.
"There will be another round of informal consultations at least tomorrow ... we're willing to go extra miles," he told reporters after the council ended the nearly four-hour debate.
Negroponte reiterated that Britain's proposals were backed by Washington, saying: "we are very supportive of their initiative."
But he quickly explained that Washington doesn't "want to be committed to those proposals in their entirety until we see what kind of attraction they get with council members."
"We don't see any sense in committing to them fully and finally if it turns out that other council members are not interested."
Meanwhile, Negroponte said there would be no vote on the US-British draft resolution on Friday, which gives a Monday ultimatum for Iraq to disarm or face war.
"We did not intend to put it to a vote tomorrow, but it could be put to a vote anytime thereafter," he said, adding that the United States would respect the UN rule of notifying other missions 24 hours before the vote.
He reiterated that the US-British draft resolution is still on the table.
"We have not taken it off the table as at the moment it is still on the table and is the only draft resolution," he said.
Warning time is "running short," Negroponte repeated his calls for the United Nations to "meet its responsibilities" to get Iraq disarmed.
In a desperate attempt to win support for war with Iraq, Britain on Wednesday proposed six tests for Iraq to meet to show its cooperation, including a demand for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to publicly admit concealment of weapons of mass destruction and pledge to disarm.
(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2003)
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