MOSCOW, March 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The United States has come Tuesday, March 18, under fire from several world leaders who reacted with deep misgivings to U.S. President George W. Bush's 48-hour ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq or face military aggression, insisting the threat from Iraq did not by any means justify war.

Several leaders and ministers spurned claims that the United Nations had failed and that diplomacy was dead, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov further warned Washington that a U.S.-led war on Iraq without a clear mandate from the United Nations would have "serious negative consequences."

The top diplomat told reporters that the "use of force against Iraq, especially bypassing the U.N. Security Council, will be fraught with serious negative consequences, and not only for the region."

Existing United Nations resolutions do "not give any right to the automatic use of force" against Baghdad, Ivanov averred.

"Unfortunately the United States has chosen the path of war. Of course with this step the United States takes full responsibility for the consequences," the foreign minister stressed.

He warned that war on Iraq could provoke a backlash in the Muslim world that would derail the international fight against terrorism.

"The international community needs a new strategy for fighting terror, it is especially important that we do not cross the line when we fight entire religions, entire civilisations," cautioned Ivanov.

Washington's unilateral military action would foil efforts to build a more secure world through international cooperation, he charged.

"What happens in the next few hours and days will decide not only what happens in Iraq but in the world as a whole, which will determine the international security structure," he said.

He asserted that U.N. weapons inspectors should be given the time they had asked for to complete their task of verifying whether Iraq posseses weapons of mass destruction.

"International inspections may need not two more weeks but four more months, but can four more months be compared to the casualties that such a war can cause?" Ivanov wondered.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, whose country holds the rotating E.U. presidency, said Bush's 48-hour deadline created a "great global crisis", asserting that the hope avoiding war is "nil".

"Even in the last hour, let me say we have a mandate to exhaust all diplomatic and peaceful efforts to a solution to this crisis," said his foreign minister, George Papandreou.

France said that there was no justification for war, as some 300,000 U.S. and British troops massed in the Gulf awaiting the green light for action.

Iraq "today does not represent an immediate threat that justifies an immediate war," French President Jacques Chirac underlined.

China's new President Hu Jintao told Chirac and Putin over the phone Tuesday that "the door to peace cannot be closed," state television reported.

"Only the political resolution of the Iraq issue within the framework of the United Nations is the correct way," Hu insisted.

Hu, in addition, told Bush in a telephone conversation hat he staunchly advocates a political solution to the Iraq crisis.

Addressing his nation, anti-war German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said: "my question remains: Does the level of threat posed by the Iraq dictator justify a war which will result in the certain death of thousands of innocent men, women and children? My answer remains: No."

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer also condemned the "tragic" outcome to the Iraq crisis.

"We are in... what can perhaps be called a tragic situation on the eve of a war that we don't support and deeply regret," Fischer told reporters as he arrived for a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers.

The United States said Tuesday it was disappointed that its closest neighbors, Canada and Mexico, do not support a U.S.-led military operation in Iraq.

"We are disappointed that some of our closest allies, including Canada, do not agree on the urgent need for action.

"We are grateful Canada remains a critical partner on the global war on terror," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

Of Mexico, he said: "We are disappointed they do not share our urgent sense that the world community needs to quickly and decisively counter the threat that Iraq represents."

Mexican President Vicente Fox, whose country is a member of the U.N. Security Council, said late Monday, March 17, he "regretted" that the U.S. administration had embarked upon the route toward war.

"We can't be in agreement either on the timing or on the process" for disarming Iraq, Fox said in a national broadcast.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said Monday that Canada would not join the U.S. "coalition of the willing" without U.N. approval for military action.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed Tuesday that 45 nations backed the United States in the coalition that may soon go to war with Iraq.

Powell said 30 of those countries were willing to be named publicly while 15 preferred to remain anonymous for now.

"Spain will not take part in any attack or offensive missions," said Aznar

In another development, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said Tuesday that his country, Washington's ally in the war camp, will not send soldiers to take part in the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

"Spain will not take part in any attack or offensive missions. As a result, there will be no Spanish combat troops in the theatre of operations," Aznar told a full session of parliament.

Spain, however, "will contribute to the international effort with a humanitarian support mission," he said.

This would take the form of a hospital ship and army units specialised in de-mining and nuclear de-contamination.

Aznar said the Galicia, an amphibian assault ship converted into a floating hospital, will be sent to the Middle East, escorted by a frigate and a supply ship.

But the leader of the Socialist opposition, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, slammed Spain's contribution.

"If you stop the war, you will have no need to send this aid," Zapatero said, underlining that Aznar's ruling conservative Popular Party was acting against the will of a vast majority of the Spanish people who oppose any military aggression against Iraq.

Zapatero said that rather than attacking terrorism, a war on Iraq would actually foment the risk of terrorist attack.

"Acting like this is not the way to fight against terrorism, it will actually feed it. There were no Iraqis among those who took part in the September 11 attacks," he stressed.

Saudi Arabia Will Not Join War

"The kingdom will under no circumstances take part in the war against brotherly Iraq," said Prince Abdullah

Saudi Arabia said Tuesday it would "under no circumstances" take part in a U.S.-led war on neighboring Iraq, for which the countdown has started.

"The kingdom will under no circumstances take part in the war against brotherly Iraq, and its armed forces will not enter an inch of Iraqi territory," Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz pledged in a televised address on behalf of King Fahd.

"We expect the war to end the moment U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 to disarm (Iraq) of weapons of mass destruction has been implemented, and we categorically refuse that ... Iraq comes under (U.S.) military occupation," he said.

Prince Abdullah said the kingdom has informed the United States of "our clear position."

He further warned that if the war goes beyond its declared objectives, the kingdom will adopt a different position.

"But if events take a course different from what we explained, or the war goes beyond its declared objectives, we will then take a different position," said Prince Abdullah.

"Regardless of the mistakes of the Iraqi government over the past years the brotherly Iraqi people must not pay the price, and the need for Iraq to remain united, free and independent is a principle not open to negotiation or bargaining," he said.

Abdullah expressed regret that efforts exerted by Saudi Arabia and others to resolve the Iraqi crisis peacefully had not "achieved the desired result" and blamed Arab weakness for the failure to adopt a strong Arab position.

Earlier in the day, British Prime Minister Tony Blair lost a third minister, Home Office Minister John Denham, who resigned in protest at the all-but-certain war on Iraq.

The Arab League, for its part, rejected the U.S. ultimatum, dismissing Bush's move as illegal.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri asked the pan-Arab body to "undertake urgent action to prevent U.S. aggression" against his country.

Delivering a biting response to Bush’s ultimatum, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said: "Whoever decides that all peaceful means under international law have been exhausted is assuming a grave responsibility before God, his conscience and before history."