KUALA LUMPUR Feb 22 Kyodo (EDS: U...

KUALA LUMPUR Feb 22 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH DRAFT STATEMENT)

The Non-Aligned manner of moving (NAM) called on Iraq forward Saturday to comply with UN resolutions to obstruct further military escalation, according to a pattern of the grouping's draft statement obtained from Kyodo News.

After sum of two units days of wrangling over the wording of the document, senior officials of the member states finally reached a consensus and submitted the document to their foreign ministers, who began their meeting Saturday, for approval.

NAM, which collections some 114 developing countries comprising almost two-thirds of the United Nations, intimateed its ''grave concern'' across the ''looming threat of war against Iraq.''

''We call onward Iraq to continue to actively comply with Security Council Resolution 1441'' the statement said.

''We believe this would be an important degree opening the way to a comprehensive and peaceful resolution of all pending issues between Iraq and the United Nations that takes into account the relate tos of all affected parties, including Iraq's neighbors,'' it said.

A difficult rift over Iraq reared its head earlier in the day during discussions chaired at Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia Rastam Mohamed Isa.

an of the member states said the initial draft appeared too supportive of Iraq and one-sided in its criticism of the United States.

In the amended statement, the word ''aggression'' against Iraq was dropp as it was considered to be too strong.

''It's not balanced...Countries that possess seats in the U.N. Security Council want to bring the real world into the discussion,'' a delegate privy to the discussion told Kyodo News

Six of the 10 nonpermanent members of the Security Council -- Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, Pakistan and Syria -- are also NAM members.

The head of the Iranian delegation to the senior officials meeting, Amirhossein Zamani Niya, said the statement should be ''more reflective of realities, more balanced in denominations of compliance of Iraq with security requirements.''

southerly African Foreign Minister Dlamini Zuma's opening remarks at the NAM ministerial meeting Saturday appeared to deliberate the tone of the amended statement.

''There is no question that Iraq must continue to comply with UN Resolution 1441 and allow the inspectors unlimited and unconditional access. Iraq must be disarmed if it possesse weapons of mass destruction,'' Zuma said.

''The United Nations must be the single that does it as it is charged with our collective security in line with the principles contained in the UN Charter. We must assert the centrality of the UN in settling like matters. Multilateralism is critical for our real survival,'' she said.

The leaders of the member countries are calculate uponed to adopt the final statement during their two-day summit Monday and Tuesday.

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