The world body's finest hour was the coalition assembled under its aegis by the first President Bush to drive President Saddam from Kuwait.How different now. "It's the UN that's really on the line," says Professor Michael Mandelbaum, one of America's best foreign policy specialists."Transatlantic relations will be noisy and contentious. But they'll be like the workings of a democracy, where disputes ultimately are secondary to what bind the parties together."Iraq is now shaping up for the UN's credibility as the 1930s Manchurian crisis did for the League of Nations. The odd thing is that those who profess to love the UN the most (ie the French) are undermining it, while those that don't greatly like it (the US), are trying to give it teeth. If it fails, no one would lose more than the French."If that happened, the UN might go the way of the League of Nations, and one fragile underpinning of the post-1945 world order would go with it.The institutionsUN SECURITY COUNCIL Date of birth: 1945Why it was created: Founded as the United Nations' enforcement arm to maintain international peace and security after the Second World War.Dominant nations: US, Britain, France, Russia and China are the five permanent veto-wielding members of the exclusive club.Relevance today? After the euphoria at the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Security Council has been consigned to virtual irrelevance since the late 1990s, when the US and Britain took military action in Kosovo without an explicit UN mandate. The Council's strength is its unity – now in tatters.NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANISATIONDate of birth: 1949Why it was created: For collective safety and to "promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area".

An attack on one member "shall be considered an attack against them all".Dominant nations (out of 19): AmericaRelevance today? Collapse of the Berlin Wall spelt the beginning of the end as Nato tried to reinvent itself through the kinder, gentler Partnership for Peace, and expanded to Russia's borders. The failure collectively to back America in a crisis could deal a fatal blow to the US-dominated alliance if the superpower proceeds unilaterally.COMMONWEALTH Date of birth: 1931Why it was created: The 1949 London Declaration launched the Commonwealth in its modern-day form, after earlier incarnations that followed the death of the British Empire. Members swear allegiance to the Queen as the head of the Commonwealth.Dominant nations (out of 54): UKRelevance today? It has occasionally shown its teeth by expelling or suspending members.Has been divided on racial lines since suspension of Zimbabwe last year. Its readmission is likely to lead to a lengthy spell of embarrassed silence.. Iraq moved to try to head off an American-led attack yesterday by unconditionally giving the green light to over-flights by U-2 spy aircraft and pledging to push through legislation to ban the use of weapons of mass destruction. Overcoming Iraqi objections to the use of U-2 planes was one of the key aims they took to the meetings.The apparent concessions came in a letter handed to the inspection directorate at the UN in New York by Iraq's ambassador, Mohamed al-Douri.

They seemed to represent the first concrete achievements of the meetings with Mr Blix and Mr Baradei.Earlier, Saddam Hussein seemed to signal some conditions to the U-2 offer, arguing that Britain and the US should suspend all patrols of the northern and southern no-fly zones while the spy aircraft are aloft. But UN officials said the letter from Iraq was clear that no conditions were attached.President Saddam told a visiting South African delegation: "If the two countries are engaged in daily combat, how can we allow the U-2 aircraft to fly in our airspace to photograph our air defences and provide information on them with the aim of destroying them?"A White House spokesman said that the bottom line for President George Bush was disarming Iraq, and the agreement on U-2 flights "does nothing to change that bottom line".The Iraqi letter was written by Amer al-Saadi, an adviser to President Saddam and Iraq's liaison to the inspectors, Mr Douri said."The inspectors are now free to use the American U-2s as well as French and Russian planes," Mr Douri announced. Previously, Iraq had refused to guarantee the safety of the U–2 because of its long-standing objections to continuing American and British patrols over the no-fly zones.Less encouragingly, Mr Blix said that new documents handed over by Iraq purporting to back up its claim that it had destroyed missing chemical and biological weapons and agents did not, at first sight, seem to offer any new evidence.But Mr Baradei, on his return to Vienna last night, was more upbeat. "There was a commitment they will fully comply" with the inspections regime, he told reporters.

"We made progress on all the areas we asked for." The Iraqi ambassador promised that the legislation banning weapons of mass destruction – another condition laid down by the inspectors – would be adopted in Baghdad before the end of next week. He also said Iraq would do more to encourage Iraqi scientists to accept private interviews with inspectors."They should have done all this months, if not years ago," a British official responded. "The big question is, are we seeing Iraq throwing bits out here and there just to impress the Security Council, or does this represent a real change in attitude? Is this just process, or a shift in substance as well?"A spokesman for Mr Baradei said Iraq had agreed to allow inspectors to analyse sites where it claims to have destroyed old chemical and biological weapons.. John Russell Houston, entertainment manager: born Trenton, New Jersey 13 September 1920; thrice married (three sons, two daughters); died New York 2 February 2003. John Houston helped his pop diva daughter Whitney achieve superstar status and sales of 120 million albums around the world. However, following Whitney Houston's drug problems and increasing unreliability, he took the step last year of suing his daughter for $100m on behalf of his company John Houston Entertainment. On American television in December, he appealed to Whitney from his hospital bed, saying: John Russell Houston, entertainment manager: born Trenton, New Jersey 13 September 1920; thrice married (three sons, two daughters); died New York 2 February 2003.