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LAJES, Azores Islands, Sunday - The United States entered what it called the "final stages of diplomacy" on Sunday, saying the UN Security Council debate on Iraq would be pointless, ahead of crisis talks with Britain and Spain on the remote Azores islands.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that Saddam Hussein could still avoid war if he went into exile, after the Iraqi President put the country on a war footing, splitting it into four military zones.

With the UN Security Council deadlocked over a British-Spanish-US resolution seeking backing for strikes on Iraq, Powell rebuffed calls by France, Germany and Russia for talks to continue and weapons inspections to be strengthened.

"Right now I don't see what purpose is to be served by another meeting when differences are so fundamental," he said in an interview with the Fox network.

But he held out the possibility of a peaceful resolution to the crisis, on condition that Saddam "and his sons and a number of other leaders," leave Iraq.

President George W. Bush headed for the talks on Portugal's mid-Atlantic Azores archipelago with allies Britain and Spain in a last-ditch bid to gain UN backing before launching strikes on Iraq.

His Vice President Dick Cheney said: "there's no question we're close to the end of the diplomatic efforts."

Washington insisted the summit was a final push to win Security Council support for its resolution ordering Iraq to disarm or face war, playing down talk of the meeting becoming a "war council."

Shortly before heading to the talks, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar told the BBC that the resolution was not a legal requirement.

"A further resolution would be politically desirable, politically better, but from a legal point of view it is not indispensable," he said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in the Portuguese Azores archipelago Sunday for a last-ditch summit on the Iraq crisis with the leaders of Spain and the United States, an AFP journalist aboard his plane reported.

Blair's spokesman told reporters on the flight that the meeting was an opportunity for the leaders to see "how and whether they can resolve what is a diplomatic crisis."

"We are in the diplomatic endgame," he said.

"They will review the diplomatic process mindful that it cannot go on forever. There's a determination to try to seek a consensus but there has to be a limit to the creativity and imagination that we can put into these efforts," he added.

But in a counter move that may hamper the Azores talks, France and Russia urged the Security Council next week to define a disarmament task list, along with a strict calendar for Baghdad to follow to avoid war.

The council is due to meet Tuesday to hear a new report from UN weapons inspectors, while a diplomat in Baghdad added that Iraq would deliver a report to the United Nations in two days on stocks of anthrax that it said it destroyed in 1991.

France and Russia have already vowed to veto the draft British-US resolution, also opposed by council members China, Germany and Syria.

French President Jacques Chirac was expected to say in an interview to be broadcast later Sunday that he could consider a 30-day timeline for UN weapons inspectors to wrap up their work in Iraq.

The last-ditch attempt to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis came as Iraq split the country into four military zones, in anticipation of US strikes.

The zoning announced by the ruling Revolutionary Command Council headed by Saddam was intended as a "means to rebuff and destroy any aggression if the villains carried it out," the state news agency INA said.

Ahead of his talks with Aznar and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush rallied the nation to war in his weekly radio address Saturday.

"There is little reason to hope that Saddam Hussein will disarm," he said, raising speculation a US-led invasion could be imminent.

"Crucial days lie ahead for the free nations of the world. Governments are now showing whether their stated commitments to liberty and security are words alone or convictions they're prepared to act upon," Bush said.

Britain's press quoted government officials as saying Blair would defy the threat of a party revolt and ministerial resignations by going to war without UN approval.

The Washington Post said the United States was "certain to lose" if the resolution came to a vote, reinforcing speculation that the Azores talks will result in the resolution being withdrawn and the onset of US military action.

Powell hinted at that outcome Thursday: "The options remain: go for a vote and see what members say, or not go for a vote."

The United States, and particularly Britain, are keen to win the nine votes in the Security Council necessary for the resolution to pass, even if France or Russia then veto the proposal.

This will leave London and Washington able to argue they have the support of the Security Council and lay out the moral case for military action.

However, that prospect looked increasingly unlikely, with the resolution so far only garnering the support of Bulgaria, with China, France, Germany, Russia and Syria lining up to block the proposal.

The six remaining non-permanent members are considered to be undecided, but with Chile and Angola already voicing opposition and Pakistan reluctant to back war, the nine votes needed in the 15-member council looked out of reach.

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, host of the hastily-called meeting scheduled to get under way at 1700 GMT, described the likelihood of a political solution as "minute."

The United States is on the verge of ordering many of its diplomats to leave the Middle East and Gulf, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday, indicating that a war with Iraq may be imminent.

Powell said the step, which was also taken in the days leading up to the 1991 Gulf War, would be "prudent," noting that other nations were already pulling their officials out of Iraq and neighbouring countries.

"I think these are expected and prudent actions," he told Fox television. "We will also be trimming down our presence in the region. We are at a moment of decision that's coming up."

Powell did not say exactly when the orders would be giving, deferring to the results of a summit later Sunday between US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in the Azores Islands.

The State Department has been poised to issue the orders since the beginning of last week but had put the plans on hold pending a UN Security Council vote on a US-British-Spanish-proposed resolution that would authorize the use of force against Iraq.

But with that resolution now in doubt, department officials said it was likely the orders would be issued within the next 48 hours whether there is a vote at the United Nations or not.

Washington has insisted the summit on the mid-Atlantic island of Terceira is a final push to win Security Council support for its resolution ordering Iraq to disarm or face war, playing down talk of the meeting being a "war council."

Shortly before heading to the talks, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar told the BBC that the resolution, if desirable, was not a legal requirement.

"A further resolution would be politically desirable, politically better, but from a legal point of view it is not indispensable," he said.

But in a counter move that may hamper the Azores talks, France and Russia urged the Security Council next week to define a disarmament task list, along with a strict calendar for Baghdad to follow to avoid war, after hearing a new report on Tuesday from UN weapons inspectors.

France, Russia and Germany have already vowed to veto the draft US-British resolution.

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