Russia Rules Out Abstention, Threatens Veto

Russia made it clear to the US and Britain yesterday that it is prepared to use its security council veto against a second UN resolution authorising war against Iraq.

The message came from its foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, who is in London.

But London and Washington said they were confident of securing the resolution: one British official accused Russia of "grandstanding".

Nevertheless, there were signs of jitters in the allies' camp. The US reiterated its determination to go ahead without a resolution, but Tony Blair, who is to see Mr Ivanov today, desperately needs one, to prevent a revolt engulfing his government and party.

One sign of nervousness was Britain's seeking to postpone the vote from next week until the week after. The US appears keen to push ahead next week as planned.

Mr Ivanov told the BBC yesterday: "Russia would not support any decision that would directly or indirectly lead to a war with Iraq."

A Russian spokesman said afterwards that the BBC had asked Mr Ivanov seven times about the veto, and each time he had hardened his answer, but in the end stopped short of a categorical statement that Russia would exercise the veto.

Later, at a press conference at the Foreign Office, he said it was the duty of security council members not to abstain on such an important issue.

The US, Britain, Spain and Bulgaria are the only ones among the 15 security council members behind the resolution so far.

Britain says a majority of nine would be a sufficient mandate for military action, even if France exercised its veto. But if France were joined by Russia, it would be more difficult for Mr Blair to argue that he had a UN mandate.

Much depends on the report by the UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, to the security council on Friday.

Foreign ministers will fly to New York for a private meeting immediately afterwards. France and Germany pushed for the meeting to be held in public, but the US and Britain succeeded in heading that off, arguing there was more chance of a compromise in private.

The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, told Channel 4 that President Bush believed a second resolution was one way forward, but there was already sufficient UN authority for action.

"I would say that time is running out" he said. "We'll wait and see what they say on Friday and then I would say in the not too distant future. We're not talking a long period of time.

"I don't want to get pinned down on days or weeks or a week, but certainly I think next week we would have to give very serious consideration as to what the next step would be."

China welcomed the destruction of the Samoud 2 missiles and other concessions by Saddam Hussein.