NY Times, Mar. 13, 2003 U.S. Raises Prospect of Abandoning Effort for U.N. Vote By JOEL BRINKLEY
WASHINGTON, March 13 — The Bush administration, acknowledging today that its drive to build support for a new United Nations resolution on Iraq had bogged down, said it was willing to postpone the vote until next week, and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell even suggested that Washington might simply drop its push for a vote altogether.
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"The options remain — go for a vote and see what members say, or not go for a vote," Secretary Powell told a Congressional committee. "All the options that you can imagine are before us, and we will be examining them today, tomorrow and into the weekend."
On Wednesday, Washington and London counted Guinea among three countries on the 15-member Security Council that had informally agreed to back the resolution, which is sponsored by the United States, Britain and Spain. But today, Guinea announced on state radio that it might abstain, putting among the six undecided members. The other two nations said to be willing to vote for the resolution, Angola and Cameroon, have said nothing publicly about how they intend to vote.
Chile is another country that Washington had looked to for support. Chile recently completed a free-trade agreement with Washington that awaits Congressional ratification. But when reporters asked President Ricardo Lagos today if he would vote with the United States, he responded, "No, that is not true."
full: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/13/international/middleeast/13CND-IRAQ.html