US plans for a possible attack on Iraq have been thrown into disarray. A dispute with Turkey has thrown the northern thrust of a two-pronged invasion of Iraq into doubt.
With Western forces building up in the Gulf region, the United States and Britain are working on a UN resolution authorising force that they hope will placate overwhelming global opposition to a war thought to be only weeks away.
The United States and Britain plan to introduce their resolution within a week, but diplomats said the Bush administration was unlikely to push it to a vote until well into the first week of March, after another report from UN weapons inspectors.
The government of Turkey, Iraq's northern neighbour has deferred a decision on allowing US invasion troops to be deployed on its territory, as the two states wrangled over the size of a multibillion-dollar aid package for Ankara.
"A framework for the agreement we are looking for has not been established," a spokesman said after a meeting of Turkey's Cabinet. "No decision regarding the request (to parliament on admitting troops) has been made."
The United States warned its apparently reluctant ally to act fast. "Time is a critical issue for us," US Ambassador Robert Pearson told reporters in Ankara.
Washington has shown growing frustration as the clock ticks toward military action and has made clear it is close to the point where it could abandon plans for a Turkish front.
"Turkey, of course, is desirable from a strategic point of view for any military staging, but the military of the United States is sufficiently flexible that whatever decision is made the United States will still be successful in carrying out any military operations," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
The United States refused to increase the size of an economic aid package for Turkey to secure access to its bases, and was preparing to deploy American troops elsewhere in the region if a deal was not reached by the end of the week.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell told Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul "that's all you're going to get," according to a US official.
Officials in Washington said the US offer of $6 billion (£3.8 billion) in grants and up to $20 billion in loan guarantees was final. Turkey has demanded more than $30 billion, US sources say.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said however that he believed Turkey would cooperate with the United States if there was a war with Iraq.