The same thing happened at Mr Bush's press conference of 6 February when the questioners were selected and

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The same thing happened at Mr Bush's "press conference" of 6 February, when the questioners were selected and fobbed off with cooked answers. Again, Mr Blair in London had to perform the role, and make the best of a bad job.The irony is that the man who will be most directly tarred with the debacle is Colin Powell, who had been seen as the lone standard bearer for diplomatic professionalism and restraint, in an Administration perceived as lacking in those skills. Now even his own diplomats have circulated a paper suggesting a new Iraq is unlikely to prove a beacon of democracy for a new Middle East, undercutting one of the prime justifications for war advanced by his President.The war may yet be won quickly and relatively cleanly, a demonstration of the unparalleled technology and firepower at the disposal of Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, the hawks at the Pentagon who, unlike the General Powell, never wanted to go the UN route. But even in the glow of victory, the diplomatic failure that preceded it is unlikely to be forgotten General Powell will not be able to escape responsibility.

Yet more dangerous in the longer run, the Bush Administration will probably conclude that Mr Rumsfeld and Mr Cheney were right.The Azores, as the White House stresses, will not be a "war summit". It is not so much a last chance to prevent war as a last chance to preserve the impression, at least, that America will play by the international rules.. The gold dodo stands in a plexiglass box beneath large lettering on the wall announcing the entrance to the Security Council. A gift to the United Nations from Mauritius, it was unveiled on Tuesday. The timing was exquisite: inside, the 15 ambassadors were hurtling towards an almost certain disaster that risks rendering the body if not quite extinct then disabled for years to come. He told colleagues on Wednesday that they were on a ship heading for an iceberg and unless they came together the vessel would sink.

But by week's end few among them seemed stirred to make a grab for the tiller.The diplomatic meltdown began a week ago on Friday when the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, amended the resolution on Iraq tabled 10 days earlier by Britain, Spain and America, setting a St Patrick's Day deadline for Saddam Hussein miraculously to convert and come clean. Minutes later, a reporter caught the Russian ambassador, Sergei Lavrov, walking the corridors and asked for his view of the suggestion. He scowled and replied: "It's bullshit." But Mr Straw was concerned with six countries on the Council seen as the fence-sitters. He hoped his initiative, which gave President Saddam one last, if narrow, chance to come around, would win their support and deliver the minimum nine votes for the resolution's success.On Sunday, the Guinean ambassador, currently president of the Council, met Sir Jeremy in his office with the answer The Six were still uncertain. What was it that Iraq would have to do, for example, to satisfy Washington and London? And they didn't like the short deadline.When the Council convened on Monday, envoys spent most of their time questioning Hans Blix, the chief inspector, on his report detailing Iraqi evasion about its weapons. America, however, had a bee in its bonnet about one thing: why had Mr Blix not made more of the find of a large drone mentioned on page 14 of the document? Wasn't it a smoking gun?At an open meeting of the Council on Tuesdaya parade of speakers berated America for being impatient for war and failing to give inspections more time to work.