A war on Iraq would be legal without a new UN resolution, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in separate remarks ahead of the emergency summit on the Iraq crisis involving the US, Spain and Britain.
As US President George W Bush headed to the Azores for the meeting, his Mr Powell also said he did not expect a new diplomatic effort to emerge from the 11th-hour review.
Appearing on the ABC This Weekprogram in Washington, where he said he will remain to co-ordinate matters with other foreign ministers, Mr Powell re-iterated that the United States opposed giving Saddam Hussein much additional time to disarm as demanded by the United Nations.
Mr Powell also said later on CNN's Late Editionthat journalists and others should consider leaving Baghdad not just for the dangers of a possible US-led attack but also because Saddam could take them hostage.
"My personal advice is they ought to take a hard look at the situation they are in, and it would probably be better for them to start leaving or make plans to leave," Mr Powell said.
He did not say whether the US would withdraw the second resolution now before the UN Security Council but he reiterated that the US believes italready has the legal authority it needs for war based on Resolution 1441.
The view was echoed by Spanish prime minister Mr Jose Maria Aznar. "A further resolution would be politically desirable, politically better, but from a legal point of view it is not indispensable," Mr Aznar told BBC television.
Mr Aznar will alter today meet US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Portugal's Azores islands to discuss tactics in the face of deep divisions in the UN Security Council over the need for war in Iraq.
The Spanish prime minister said that although Spain, Britain and the United States had "worked flat out" to reach a consensus in the Council, "we cannot do anything about those countries who say they would veto a resolution whatever its contents.
"We have done everything in our power in the last few weeks to reach a solution," Mr Aznar said.
Arriving in the Azores in the past hour, a spokesman for Blair admitted there was now a full-blown diplomatic "crisis".
He said Mr Blair wanted to discuss with fellow leaders the status of Iraqi oil proceeds in a "post conflict" situation.
The spokesman also said the issues addressed by the leaders would be not only how to resolve the diplomatic stalemate, but whether it could be resolved at all.
Mr Blair's spokesman said Attorney General Lord Goldsmith would want to let it be known that any military action against Iraq would be justified with or without a second UN resolution.
Elsewhere, French President Jacques Chirac said he would accept a period of less than 120 days for UN arms inspectors to finish their work in Iraq, if theinspectors proposed it.
Washington was quick to express scepticism at the apparent softening of the French government position, and said the time for delay on Iraq was almost over.
Mr Chirac, who has led those resisting the US/British/Spanish position said disarmament work had progressed in Iraq and that it appeared that arms inspection teams could finish the job.
"I am fully prepared to accept whatever practical working terms the inspectors will propose," Chirac said. Chief inspector Dr Hans Blix is supposed to report to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.
"Let me remind you that the inspectors said themselves on several occasions that it was not a matter of years, but that it was obviously not a matter of days either - that it was a question of months," he said.
AFP