Second mandate delayed by lack of support

MORE countries yesterday lined up against war with Iraq as the US and Britain struggled to find support for a new Security Council resolution authorising force against Saddam Hussein.

The overwhelming opposition to the Bush administration's policies on Iraq voiced in the Security Council and in the streets of world capitals last weekend set back plans for the introduction of a new resolution yesterday, US and British diplomats said.

The diplomats said the very substance of the resolution envisioned just one week ago as a short and tough text had yet to be agreed upon between President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.