The US and British governments yesterday held out hope that they could persuade a majority of the UN Security Council to vote tomorrow for a resolution setting a March 17th deadline for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to prove he had disarmed or face war. Report by Conor O'Clery, in New York, and Frank Millar, in London
However the votes are far from secure, and faced with resignations from the Labour Party in the event of going to war without UN backing, British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair urgently lobbied council members by phone at the weekend, among them Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
Mr Andrew Reed's resignation as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) dramatically underlined the rising risk of open Labour rebellion should the UK join an invasion of Iraq without UN sanction.
Also yesterday, British International Development Minister Ms Claire Short said she would resign if the government followed the United States into war without UN authorisation.
Four other PPSs confirmed they would form the first wave of government resignations and five more PPSs and up to 30 junior ministers might also be considering their positions, as a new poll showed that just 15 per cent of people in Britain would support a war without explicit UN authority.
The US and British are attempting to win over council members by arguing that the resolution gives Saddam Hussein until March 17th to react, so that governments can say they are not voting for the "automatic" use of force.
President Bush will today make direct, individual appeals to the leaders of Security Council countries for their vote, emphasising that Saddam Hussein is dangerous and the international community cannot afford not to respond.
In what could be the last week of peace, the US President has cancelled public events until Thursday, when he will have a 30-minute meeting with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and attend other events related to St Patrick's Day celebrations.
US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell said they had a "strong chance" of getting nine or 10 states on the 15-member council to back the proposal.
If the resolution was defeated, it did not mean war was postponed, he made clear in television interviews yesterday. President Bush would decide the next step, but "the probability of war is rapidly increasing".
"We'll see if somebody wants to veto it," Mr Powell told CNN, adding he would not be surprised if France vetoed the resolution.
France has not said it will use its veto but President Jacques Chirac's office in Paris on Saturday again rejected the "ultimatum resolution" as unacceptable.
French Foreign Minister Mr Dominique de Villepin embarked last night on a whistle-stop tour of Guinea, Cameroon and Angola, three of the six undecided voters in the Security Council, to persuade them to reject the resolution.
The other three are Chile, Mexico and Pakistan.
In a final attempt to show Security Council members that war might still be avoided, the US and Britain are to give Saddam Hussein a list of weapons he must destroy or account for by March 17th.
The set of disarmament "trip-points" are taken from a private report to the Security Council by chief UN weapons inspectors Dr Hans Blix and Dr Mohamed elBaradei listing 29 unresolved disarmament issues.
The list includes items that Iraq has not fully accounted for, including 550 mustard gas shells and 350 R-400 bomb capable of carrying chemical and biological weapons and 80 tonnes of mustard gas, as well as VX, Sarin and Soman gas.