US threats against worldwide diplomatic drive for emergency session of the UN General Assembly

The US has launched a worldwide diplomatic drive to head off the calling of an emergency session of the UN General Assembly to condemn the US-led war on Iraq, diplomats said yesterday.

The group of nonaligned nations at the UN met earlier this week to consider convening a special session of the 191-nation assembly to denounce the US.

But the group of 166 countries, led currently by Malaysia, failed to agree on whether to go ahead after some argued action was premature as the war had not yet begun, diplomats said.

No new meeting of the group has been set since the invasion began on Wednesday. But "there are a lot of countries talking about that," said Syrian UN Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe.

Envoys attributed the disarray among the nonaligned nations to US diplomatic muscle and said many countries feared offending Washington.

In Washington, a US Department Of State official confirmed the US was making its case that an emergency session "would not serve the interests of the United Nations."