The UN Security Council remains divided over a new resolution authorising an attack on Iraq, increasing the chances of the United States and Britain leading a "coalition of the willing" without UN backing.
France, opposed to rapid action by a US/British invasion force, today rejected Britain's plan to set Baghdad a set of tasks to carry out within days to avoid war.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Mr Naji Sabri called the idea "an aggressive plan for war".
Britain's Conservative Party leader Mr Iain Duncan Smith said he believed a second resolution was "probably less likely than at any time before", after being briefed by Prime Minister Tony Blair.
He said Mr Blair's view was that "the French have become completely intransigent".
Other signs of impending war are in evidence in Turkey, where the parliament is to meet at the weekend, implying an urgent US request to use the south of the country as a northern front in an attack on Iraq could be granted.
Elsewhere, an Arab League delegation hoping to avert war cancelled a trip to Baghdad.
A Security Council vote on the US, British and Spanish-backed resolution had already looked set for further delay today despite frantic diplomatic efforts. A vote, first planned for Tuesday and then pushed to tomorrow, may not now ever take place as opposition stacked up to the British initiative.
The 15 council members are to meet again at 8 p.m. (Irish time) in New York to discuss the British proposals, which include a demand that Saddam go on television to confess to having banned weapons - which he denies - and pledge to hand them to UN inspectors.
The British are still holding out some hope of international agreement - with government sources in London saying they were prepared to let UN negotiations go on for a few more days.
US ambassador to the UN Mr John Negroponte last night indicated there could be a "very, very modest" extension to the resolution's ultimatum for Saddam to agree by Monday to disarm.
But French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin rejected the "logic of ultimatums". He said: "It's not a question of giving Iraq a few more days before committing to the use of force. It's about making resolute progress towards peaceful disarmament, as mapped out by inspections that offer a credible alternative to war".
An adviser to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Britain appeared pessimistic of winning UN backing. Russian Foreign Minister Mr Igor Ivanov again said Russia would vote against any resolution leading to war.
With a quarter of a million US and British troops in the Gulf and President George W. Bush's vow to attack without UN backing, analysts believe the White House might end the international standoff by ditching another resolution and act without backing.
Agencies