The U.N. Security Council was expected to back a tough resolution drafted by the United States and Britain Friday to ensure Iraq gets rid of arms of mass destruction, but Russia still had some lingering doubts. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has condemned the resolution as the law of the jungle, but the 15-nation Security Council looked set to adopt it by an overwhelming majority after nearly two months of arduous deliberations between Washington and Paris, diplomats said.

Syria, the only Arab nation currently on the Security Council, was likely to be the only country to abstain.

President Bush said he was confident the resolution would be voted through Friday.

"Should we have to use troops, should it become a necessity in order to disarm him (Saddam), the United States, with friends, will move swiftly, with force, to do the job," Bush said. "We will do what it takes militarily to succeed."

Russia said Friday the new resolution had removed any automatic resort to force against Iraq if Baghdad was considered to be impeding the work of U.N. arms inspectors.

The United Nations first sent arms inspectors to Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War to ensure it had no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons capability. They were last there in 1998.

According to French diplomats, the inspectors now alone can report a breach to the Security Council, which has to meet to evaluate it. But Russia still had some reservations.

"Moscow still has some concerns on the issue, and consultations of some sort will have to take place before the vote," Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov, one of Moscow's main spokesmen on the Iraq issue, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

France's presidential palace said Friday, however, that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed with French President Jacques Chirac by telephone that the text of the resolution was satisfactory.

"It is firm toward Iraq and allows the chance for a peaceful solution. Force is only a final recourse," an official at the Elysee presidential palace, who declined to be named, said the two leaders had agreed.

The Kremlin said in a statement Friday only that Putin and Chirac "continued their consultations ahead of the vote."

France and Russia had led opposition to an original draft submitted by Washington, fearing "hidden triggers" which would allow Washington to attack Iraq whenever it chose.

Russia, which has considerable economic ties in Iraq, has not yet signaled it will back the resolution, but diplomats at U.N. headquarters in New York expected Moscow, one of five permanent Council members with veto power, to vote "yes."

Putin also spoke Thursday to Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, Washington's main backer on the issue.

EVIL SCHEMES, SADDAM SAYS

Saddam Thursday urged the world to take a "just" position to stop the United States and Britain from achieving their "evil" schemes in the resolution on arms inspections.

He said Washington and London were "exerting pressure on the Security Council to take resolutions that contradict international law and the United Nations Charter."

"If these two American and British administrations are able to achieve their wishes, the world would return to a new law, which is the law of evil based on power and opportunity rather than the law of love and justice," Iraqi television quoted Saddam as telling Malaysian Information Minister Khalil Yaacob.

The resolution says Iraq has "a final opportunity" to scrap any weapons of mass destruction that it has and threatens "serious consequences" if it does not.

Syria, which was seen as the only Security Council member likely to abstain in the vote, said the resolution must not refer "directly or indirectly" to use of force.

"It is very important that the Americans do not interpret the draft resolution, after it is issued, as something that gives them a direct or indirect mandate to attack Iraq," Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara was quoted as saying by the al-Thawra daily.

The six-page draft gives U.N. arms inspectors unrestricted inspection rights, including scrutiny of Saddam's palace compounds.

The inspectors left in 1998 after repeated disputes with Iraqi authorities over access to suspected arms sites, and have not returned since.

A minimum of nine votes and no veto from the United States, Russia, China, France or Britain is required for the adoption of a resolution by the Security Council.

PHOTO CAPTION

Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. James Cunningham (L) and French Ambassador to the U.N. Jean-David Levitte enter the United Nations Security Council to discuss the latest draft of the resolution on Iraq, November 7, 2002. The United States and France came to a last-minute agreement on a tough U.N. resolution giving Iraq a last chance to disarm or face war, making a vote on Nov. 8 fairly certain. (Chip East/Reuter