MOSCOW -- Washington failed yesterday to overcome its toughest diplomatic obstacle to United Nations support for a war against Baghdad, after Russia rejected out of hand a proposed Security Council resolution that would threaten Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein with military action unless Iraq complies with international demands.

The Kremlin, which has a key veto at the UN Security Council, expressed skepticism over the British-written draft, which U.S. diplomats also took to Paris and Beijing.

While Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov made no comment after his meeting with U.S. Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman on Saturday, the Kremlin reiterated its position that no new UN resolution is needed for weapons inspectors to return to Iraq.

Then, yesterday, the Interfax news service quoted unnamed Kremlin sources as saying Russia is "disappointed" by the resolution, to be made public today.
"In its current form, the draft resolution is infeasible," one source was quoted as saying.

Russia has already responded positively to Baghdad's recent offer to readmit weapons inspectors, which have been barred from the country since 1998, but will begin talks today with Iraqi experts in Austria to arrange for their return.

And before his Saturday meeting, Mr. Ivanov dismissed a recent British report on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction capability as "propaganda furor."

France also reacted coolly to the draft, and China has been cool to the idea that military action is needed to oust Mr. Hussein. Both countries have vetoes at the Security Council.

The United States and Britain allege that Iraq has been amassing chemical and biological weapons that it could use against its neighbours or give to terrorist organizations, and that it is trying to develop a nuclear bomb.

Baghdad vehemently denies the charges, but in Turkey on Saturday, police said they had seized a shipment of uranium that may have been bound for Iraq. Although early reports were that the haul yielded 15 kilograms of uranium, a Turkish official insisted yesterday that "no more than 100 grams" had been seized.

Washington and London plan to submit their draft resolution to the UN some time this week.

The text remained secret as of yesterday, but reports from the United Nations suggested that the document says Iraq is in "material breach" of previous resolutions and threatens the use of force if Baghdad does not comply with demands that it allow inspectors unfettered access.

A seven-day deadline for Baghdad to disclose the state of its weapons programs is reportedly followed by a 23-day period during which inspectors would be allowed to verify those claims.

Some argue that war is inevitable anyway. U.S. President George W. Bush is also seeking approval from the U.S. Congress for the authority to "use all means" to disarm Iraq.

And in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, British Prime Minister Tony Blair refused to rule out the possibility that Britain would join the United States in an invasion, even without UN backing.

Meanwhile, U.S. jets -- which have been periodically bombing Iraqi targets in official no-fly zones since the Persian Gulf war ended -- raided the civilian airport in the southern Iraqi city of Basra for the second time in a week. U.S. Central Command said it had targeted a military mobile radar at Basra "in response to hostile acts," likely ground fire.

Iraq threatened yesterday to wage "fierce war" if it is attacked, having dismissed the idea of a Security Council resolution backed by the threat of military action.

The comment was made by Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, who took Baghdad's diplomatic effort to neighbouring Iran yesterday, telling his country's former enemy that the United States is a threat not only to Iraq but to the entire Islamic world.

Back in Moscow, Duma defence committee deputy chair Aleksei Arbatov expressed a similar sentiment, saying the Iraq situation is hurting U.S.-Russian relations and weakening international institutions such as the UN.

However, the major Russian newspaper Izvestia quoted sources saying that U.S. action against Iraq is "inevitable" and predicting that Russia will drop its objections as soon as it gets its price -- a U.S. guarantee that Russia will get both the $7-billion (U.S.) it is owed by Iraq and a free hand in dealing with neighbouring Georgia, which it accuses of harbouring Chechen "terrorists."

In comments to reporters, Mr. Grossman, the U.S. envoy, was cagey about the U.S.-Russian discussions.

"Our purpose here today was not to negotiate a text, was not to come to any agreement," he said, accompanied by Peter Ricketts, political director of the British Foreign Office.

"Secretary [of State Colin] Powell and [British] Foreign Minister [Jack] Straw sent us here today to make a presentation about what we were thinking, why we were thinking it, and that's what we tried to do."

The Russians "had some questions; we tried to give some answers," he said.