Washington: US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his British counterpart Jack Straw held talks in Washington on October 15 on their Iraq strategy, as efforts to forge consensus on a tough new United Nations (UN) resolution on disarmament appeared to languish.

Powell and Straw also discussed the weekend bombing at the Indonesian resort of Bali and the global war against terrorism, but a State Department official said the focus of the talks was Iraq and the United Nations.

Despite several weeks of intense diplomatic wrangling, the United States and Britain have yet to convince fellow permanent members of the UN Security Council, China, France and Russia, on the need for a single new resolution demanding that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein disarm under threat of military force. All five permanent members can veto any resolution.