Bush, meanwhile, made an urgent round of phone calls to world leaders, trying to salvage a U.N. Security Council ultimatum giving Saddam Hussein until March 17 to prove Iraq has disarmed. 

Bush spoke to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, South African President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Sultan Qaboos of Oman, spokesman Ari Fleischer said. 

He said Bush was emphasizing humanitarian arguments for war with Iraq. 

Fleischer said that a showdown Security Council vote would not come Tuesday, but could come anytime later in the week. He also opened the door to the possibilty of further changes in the wording of the resolution, or the March 17 "deadline." 

"There are consulations under way," Fleischer said. "They are fluid." 

On Monday, Russia said more explicitly than ever that it would oppose the new resolution. 

Powell's meeting with the foreign minister of Guinea was part of the effort to gather a minimum of nine votes on the U.N. council to use force as a final option to disarm Iraq. 

Fall declined to tip his hand publicly. "We are trying to resolve this peacefully," he told reporters. 

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin is on a parallel lobbying campaign to line up Guinea, Cameroon and Angola, the three African nations on the council, to oppose the resolution, due for a vote this week. 

Powell rejected any notion of a bitter competition with the head of the anti-war bloc. "We are both working for causes we believe in," he said. "I am not in competition." 

China is a permanent member of the council and has veto power. Japan backed the new resolution Saturday, urging the council to pass it. While Japan is not on the council, it is a major source of foreign aid - an important consideration for the poor nations on the body. 

Rules of the 15-member Security Council require nine votes to adopt a resolution. If one of the five permanent members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia, or China - votes "no" on a resolution, even one supported by the other 14 nations, that single vote kills the proposal. 

Powell said he would not be surprised by a French veto. Such a step by France, he warned, would "have a serious effect on bilateral relations, at least in the short term." Powell said he could not be sure where another veto-bearing nation, China, stood on a vote that could take place as early as Tuesday. 

In television interviews Sunday, Powell and Rice said they believed public opinion had been slow to follow the Bush administration. But they predicted the public and U.S. allies would come to support an American-led war with Iraq. 

On "Fox News Sunday," Powell said "I think we're in striking distance of (nine or 10 votes). We'll be in intense negotiations over the next couple of days, a lot of diplomacy will be taking place." 

Criticism rose from several quarters, meanwhile. 

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean contended that a U.S.-led war would give license to other nations who felt they needed to pre-emptively attack. 

"It might be considered as a precedent for others to try to do the same thing," Chretien said on ABC's "This Week." "Where do you stop? You know, if you can do that there, why not elsewhere?" 

"What is to prevent China, some years down the road, from saying, 'Look what the United States did in Iraq - we're justified in going in and taking over Taiwan?'" Dean said on NBC's "Meet the Press." 

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California drew a standing ovation from members of the Communications Workers of America when she stated her opposition to an Iraq war now. Bush has alienated allies in the war on terror, she said. 

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said war could threaten the United States by fanning anti-American sentiment. 

"Anti-Americanism is a threat to us," Levin said on CNN's "Late Edition." 

Former President Carter, last year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate, added his voice to that warning. "It is quite possible that the aftermath of a military invasion will destabilize the region and prompt terrorists to further jeopardize our security at home," he said in a New York Times opinion article Sunday. 

"Increasingly unilateral and domineering policies have brought international trust in our country to its lowest level in memory," Carter wrote. "American stature will surely decline further if we launch a war in clear defiance of the United Nations." 

Police arrested five anti-war protesters outside the ABC studios in Washington where Rice was interviewed, and several demonstrators followed her to the CBS offices where she was interviewed on "Face the Nation."