WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD, 15 March 2003 — Leaders of the United States, Britain and Spain will hold an emergency summit today in a last-gasp diplomatic effort to overcome opposition in the UN Security Council to a resolution paving the way for war on Iraq.

President George W. Bush will travel to Portugal’s Azores islands, about 1,450 km (900 miles) west of the European mainland, to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in a “final pursuit” of a UN resolution on disarming Iraq, the White House said yesterday.

US officials said the summit, to be held at a US air base at Lajes on the Island of Terceira, should not be considered a war council but rather an effort to find unity on the Security Council in hopes of forcing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to give up power without war.

“If the Security Council is able to pass a resolution, much like what has already been discussed by the United States, the British and the Spanish, it is still possible for Saddam Hussein to see the writing on the wall and to get out of Iraq and therefore preserve peace,” Arie Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said.

Washington says that it can attack Iraq without clear UN backing but Russia, Germany and France all refused to drop opposition to any rapid military action by 250,000 US and British troops massed in the Gulf. The United States, Britain and Spain have drawn up a resolution that sets Iraq a tough ultimatum to disarm or face invasion. So far only one other of the 15-nation Security Council — Bulgaria — has publicly backed the proposal.

Chile, one of six uncommitted nations, proposed Iraq fulfill five conditions over the next three weeks that the Security Council must first evaluate before deciding on war.

“We have developed, jointly with other countries, a proposal for the Security Council that demands five basic conditions to guarantee the effective disarmament of Saddam Hussein,” Chilean President Ricardo Lagos said in Santiago in announcing the proposals.

Fleischer immediately shot down the Chilean plan, circulated at the United Nations, as a “non-starter.” But it was indicative of the discontent among the six uncommitted nations about a resolution that would trigger war immediately as the US-backed draft does.

French President Jacques Chirac, who has threatened to veto any UN resolution sanctioning war, told Blair that Paris was ready to seek a compromise about disarming Iraq but rejected any ultimatum leading to war.

A spokeswoman for Chirac said France was ready to discuss halting UN arms inspections before the end of a 120-day period which Paris has favored until now. Her account of a telephone call to Blair suggested little else new in Chirac’s position.

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said she would travel to the Gulf today to hand over a message from Chirac to three regional leaders. Alliot-Marie will go to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. She said she would take Chirac’s personal message “to the highest authorities of these countries to express our solidarity in these difficult times and our intention to implement defense agreements (that exist between France and the three countries) if they have any concerns and wish to do so.”

All three of the states she will be visiting have military cooperation agreements with France. France also provides 80 percent of Qatar’s military equipment and 50 percent of the UAE’s.

In Baghdad, a Foreign Ministry source said Iraq will deliver to the United Nations on to a report on the VX quantities it says it destroyed 12 years ago.

He did not specify if the report would be delivered to the UN mission in Iraq or to the world body in New York. Baghdad-based diplomats earlier said the report was to be handed to the UN yesterday.

The US Navy said it was moving a dozen more missile-firing warships from the eastern Mediterranean to the Gulf region, joining more than 60 other US ships arrayed against Iraq. Such a move could bring more cruise missiles to bear on Iraq.

A Pentagon official said the decision involves “more than 10 ships” — cruisers, destroyers and submarines.