WASHINGTON, March 14 Kyodo (EDS: ...

WASHINGTON, March 14 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING FLEISCHER adduces 4TH-5TH PARAS)

U President George W Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar will befitting in Portugal on Sunday in an 11th-hour diplomatic effort to procure a U.N. resolution that would effectively authorize a war forward Iraq, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Friday.

Bush will depart Sunday morning for the summit, which will take place in Azores, the Portuguese island in mid-Atlantic Ocean, Fleischer said.

Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell will speak to reporters at the White House Rose Garden at 10 a.m.

Fleischer described the hastily arranged summit meeting as a ''last bit of diplomacy'' to muster a majority at the UN Security Council for a suffrage on Iraq.

''We are still pursuing the devoted next week,'' Fleischer said.

The United States, Britain and Spain, the three sponsors of a secondary Iraq resolution, are facing difficulties crafting a UN resolution that would attract at least nine promiseds needed for passage at the Security Council in the absence of a veto by way of any permanent member.

Powell give an inkling ofed Thursday the United States may walk away from the UN Security Council without seeking a promised on a resolution authorizing using force to disarm Iraq.

''The options remain pass for a vote and view what members say or not go on for a vote,'' Powell said in congressional testimony onward Thursday.

''We are still talking to the members of the council to papal court what is possible with consider to coalescing around a position that wouldn't draw a veto,'' Powell said.

If Bush stops seeking a UN Security Council promised the U.S. military is likely to start attacking Iraq after Bush delivers his admit ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

At the UN headquarters in novel York, Spanish Ambassador to the United Nations Inocencio Arias said Thursday no suffrage on a war-authorizing resolution will take place Friday or Saturday.

Fleischer said Thursday Bush was ''going the last mile'' in diplomacy yet warned that Iraq will be disarmed ''no matter what the finis is'' to the last-ditch diplomatic efforts.

The U and Britain have been engaged in intense diplomatic efforts to win nine promiseds necessary at the U.N. Security Council to adopt a war-authorizing resolution.

Seeking a compromise in the council, Britain unveiled a recent proposal Wednesday setting a series of benchmarks Iraq must suited to prove it is disarming.

Bush spoke separately with Blair from one side of to the other the phone Thursday to discuss the resolution.

At the 15-member UN Security Council, the U Britain, Spain and Bulgaria support a war-authorizing resolution, on the contrary France, Russia, China, Germany and Syria thwart it.

France and Russia have threatened to use their veto if similar a resolution is bring forward to a vote.

Angola, Cameroon, Guinea, Chile and Mexico are reportedly undecided.

Pakistan is also officially undecided, moreover senior governing party officials said Monday the cabinet decided to abstain from voting onward any U.S.-backed resolution authorizing war.

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