The lack of agreement effectively leaves the situation here in a limbo, following four-day US and British air strikes against Iraq which divided the council, until the 15-member Council resumes discussions next Monday after the Christmas holiday break.

The US delegation submitted amendments on Wednesday to a Russian draft statement, in order to notably rule out any disarmament role for UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.

Russian deputy permanent representative Yuri Fedotov admitted to reporters after a closed-door council meeting that ``one of the problems is that the role of the secretary-general is somehow limited and confined to the humanitarian aspect of the situation.''

Security Council president Jassim Buallay of Bahrain said that the Council would meet again `next week' to discuss the Russian draft.Buallay said that the Russian delegation would hold bilateral discussions, ``so they can come next week to the council with an agreed text.'' A formal statement requires consensus among all 15 Council members to be adopted.

The Council has so far met three times to discuss the Russian text, which proposes a meeting of the UNSCOM to review the disarmament situation after the bombings. However the draft also called on UN Chief Kofi Annan to present an overall assessment, and make recommendations to ensure the implementation of UN resolutions.

The US delegation, apparently fearing that Annan's recommendations would be favourable to Iraq, stressed in its amendments that it was up to UNSCOM and the International Atomic Energy Agency to make disarmament recommendations to the Council.

Annan, meanwhile, acknowledged that it would take time for the council to recover a unified position regarding Iraq, though he denied he had formed a task force which planned to farm out parts of UNSCOM to different agencies.Buthe added, ``Obviously there are discussions going on as to what happens in the future. No one can pretend that with what has happened after the bombing we can do business as usual, and (that) nothing has to be changed.''

Unscom is dead: Iraqi press

BAGHDAD: Iraq said on Thursday that the United Nations weapons inspectors could never return to the country following last week's US and British air strikes. The official Al-Iraq newspaper said the UN Special Commission charged with disarming Iraq (UNSCOM) and its chief Richard Butler were Anglo-American spies and stooges, and could nver return to Baghdad.

``It is the lowest of the low that America and UK are demanding the return of UNSCOM, as the aggression is the final straw for this commission,'' said the paper. ``The wheel has come full circle for the spies, the Americans and the British have buried Butler and his commission of spies in the grave that was dug by their aggression, and they have brought UNSCOM's role to an end,'' it added.