United Nations, Aug 26: The United States is opposing a resolution aimed at protecting UN staff and humanitarian workers because it fears it could lay the groundwork for prosecutions by the International Criminal Court. Negotiations were under way late yesterday to try to find a compromise.

The Security Council scheduled a vote today on the resolution, which has languished since late April because of US opposition but surged into the spotlight following last week's bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad. The resolution calls for protecting of UN and other humanitarian workers- and prosecuting those who try to harm them.

The United States objects to a reference in the resolution to attacks against humanitarian personnel and peacekeepers being considered a war crime by the International Criminal Court, a tribunal the Bush administration vehemently opposes.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed the draft on Saturday with Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, whose country sponsored the resolution, US State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip T Reeker said. ``We fully appreciate the need for protection of humanitarian workers,'' Reeker said. ``Our concerns particularly involve language on the International Criminal Court. ... We're concerned that the language discussing that in the resolution is unnecessary.''

Bureau Report