NEW YORK-- When the US faced an eye-ball to eye-ball military confrontation with the then Soviet Union at the height of the cold war in 1962, the legendary US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson made a theatrical appearance before the Security Council providing starkly vivid U-2 surveillance photographs of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba deemed threatening to the United States.

The evidence was so damning that the Soviets had to pull out their missiles and the Security Council was more than convinced with the American case for a possible nuclear war at that time.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has announced that he will appear before the same Security Council next Wednesday to produce the evidence the US thinks it has to go to war with Iraq.

''But it won't be an Adlai Stevenson moment,'' warns one senior US official, preparing sceptics for a disappointment.

Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov, who speaks halting Sinhala after having served in the Soviet Embassy in Colombo in the early 1970s, was very demanding last week when he told reporters: "We would like to see undeniable proof."

At a closed-door meeting of the Security Council, 11 out of the 15 members wanted more time for UN arms inspectors to continue their search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, instead of going to war.

France, Russia and China-- three veto-wielding permanent members, along with Pakistan, Angola, Germany, Mexico, Chile, Guinea, Cameroon and Syria-- supported further inspections. The only countries supporting the US to end inspections were Britain, Spain and Bulgaria.

The US is hoping that Powell's appearance before the Security Council next week will be a militarily defining moment making the American case for war more convincing.

In a country steeped in gun culture, the US wants to produce any gun to prove its case-- now that it has found no "smoking gun".

When Hans Blix, the UN's chief arms inspector produced his first progress report on the ongoing inspections in Iraq, the US selectively picked his criticisms to make a wobbling case for war.

But in an interview with the New York Times on Friday, Blix challenged several of the Bush administration's assertions about Iraqi cheating.

Blix also challenged a statement attributed to Powell that UN arms inspectors had found that Iraqi officials were hiding and moving illicit materials to prevent detection.

Clearly, the world's warlords are no longer in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan. They are inside the White House Oval Office in Washington DC.

The rightwing hawks in the Bush administration-- led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld-- are clearly on the warpath looking for any plausible excuse to send in the troops.

But their plans to legitimise a military attack on Iraq may be frustrated by a divided UN Security Council which is refusing to give the Americans a blank cheque.

Although the US -- running true to form -- may cajole, browbeat and threaten the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council into falling in line, the Bush administration is now facing strong resistance from three of the veto-wielding permanent members, namely France, Russia and possibly an ambivalent China.

A single veto can torpedo any US-sponsored resolution seeking UN authorisation for a military attack on Iraq.

France has already charted a collision course with the US expressing strong reservations about such a resolution. At a UN press conference, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters that the international community must sustain "a consensus" and cannot afford the luxury of a "military shortcut" to resolve the Iraqi crisis.

But Villepin, who urged that UN arms inspectors be given more time to complete their search for weapons of mass destruction, hinted that France could use its veto to block any US-sponsored Security Council resolution that calls for a war on Iraq.

Meanwhile, the anti-war demonstrations worldwide have continued to increase. A major demonstration is scheduled to take place in New York on Febuary 15.

The US claims it has about 20 countries who have agreed either to join an American-led military coalition against Iraq or to provide access to military bases. But it is refusing to name the countries.

One of the strongest criticisms of the US came last week from former South African President Nelson Mandela who continues to be the most outspoken political leader today.

"If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America", he said.

Mandela accused both US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair of undermining the UN and threatening the credibility of the world body.

"They do not care," he said. "Is it because the Secretary-General of the United Nations is now a black man?".

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