Iraq said on Wednesday it was futile for the United Nations Security Council to adopt any new resolution on Iraq as the United States was determined to go to war and would find any pretext to do so. "There is no need for the Security Council to adopt a new resolution, particularly after it has become clear to everybody that the objective of the U.S. administration is not to assert that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction or dismantle the arms it claims Iraq has," the official al-Thawra daily said.

"The U.S. objective is to find a new pretext to launch its aggression on Iraq after all its other pretexts failed, and to try to find a fake international cover for this aggression," it declared in a front-page editorial.

A revised U.S. proposal aimed at ending a month-long deadlock over Iraqi weapons inspections met fresh resistance in the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday from veto-holding countries Russia and France.

Facing stiff opposition, Washington drew up a new draft and met twice on Tuesday with permanent members of the 15-nation council who hold veto power. But there was no sign the two sides were moving any closer on the new U.S. draft.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was quoted as saying the proposed resolution on Iraq did not meet minimum requirements on the issue.

"BOOBY-TRAPPED RESOLUTION"

The Al-Tahwra editorial went on: "The evil Bush administration has opposed and is still opposing the will of the nations. It is now seeking a new booby-trapped Security Council resolution to use eventually as a pretext for a new aggression on Iraq with a fake international cover."

It said the credibility of the U.N. was damaged by bowing to American pressure and not letting weapons inspectors return to Baghdad this month to resume their work despite an agreement reached with Iraq.

"This is a violation, a blatant humiliation of the international organization and a total submission of the Security Council to American pressure," al-Thawra said.

"This Council that demands that others respect their commitments is not respecting its own," it added.

Washington has met widespread opposition for threatening to attack Iraq, with or without U.N. support, and for seeking the removal of President Saddam Hussein . It says Iraq has amassed an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and threatens world security, a charge Baghdad denies.

Babel, the newspaper owned by Saddam's eldest son Uday, said Iraq would exhaust "all diplomatic and political channels" to avert U.S. military action but the oil-producing country of 22 million people was ready to defend itself.

"We pray to God that the American aggression does not take place. While we confirm again that we don't want war and that it is America that is determined on war, we say America will meet heroic resistance if it attacked," Babel said.

PHOTO CAPTION

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte speaks with reporters after leaving talks on Iraq at the Russian mission to the U.N. in New York on October 22, 2002. A revised U.S. draft resolution for Iraqi disarmament met new resistance from Russia, one of five nations with veto power on the United Nations Security Council. (Peter Morgan/Reuters)