Spain May Withdraw Iraq Resolution

MADRID — The U.S.-backed resolution on Iraq may be withdrawn because of France's threat to veto it, the Spanish foreign minister said Wednesday.

The resolution is being co-sponsored by the United States, Britain and Spain and would set a deadline for Iraq to prove it has destroyed its weapons of mass destruction.

France, Russia and China have said they will oppose any resolution endorsing war against Iraq. The United States says it wants a vote this week.

Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said that if there is a vote, she expects it by Friday at the latest, but there might not be one.

"Clearly, not putting it to a vote is a possibility which is being considered," Palacio said.

"We are considering it, above all in view of the already absolute and emphatic affirmation by France of a veto, because a veto is undoubtedly something which has consequences for the United Nations system," she said.

Palacio spoke to reporters at the Spanish senate after returning from Paris and meetings with her French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin and other government officials.

A Foreign Ministry official later downplayed Palacio's remarks, saying she was talking about a hypothetical situation, and declined to say what kind of disarmament deadline Saddam Hussein might get if no resolution is voted on.

Britain set out a list of conditions for Iraq's disarmament Wednesday, hoping to break the impasse at the United Nations, but the British ideas have not yet been incorporated into a revised U.N. resolution. Palacio said Spain is willing to extend the disarmament deadline by a "a few days" but no more.

Palacio said the resolution might be withdrawn even if it garnered the nine votes necessary for passage by the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

Before her meeting in Paris, Palacio said Spain is open to changes to the resolution on Iraq, but the measure must ensure the "total disarmament" of Saddam.