DESPITE a new Russian veto threat, President George W Bush worked the phones to foreign leaders yesterday in an uphill struggle to gain support for a UN resolution setting up war against Iraq.

THE United States last night insisted that if Iraq obeys UN orders to destroy its ballistic missiles, the move will still leave Baghdad far short of UN demands and not stop the march toward a possible war.

Russia does not see any need for a new UN Security Council resolution that would authorise the use of force against Iraq Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said today.

The US, seeking to calm rising tensions, wants nuclear rivals India and Pakistan to try to resolve their differences at a conference in Nepal next week, rather than on the battlefield.