Bush gathers support for international court veto

Twelve nations have agreed to a request by the United States not to turn over American peace-keepers to a new international criminal court.

Pierre-Richard Prosper, the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, did not name the 12 countries but the State Department said Micronesia signed an agreement yesterday, joining Romania, Israel, East Timor, the Marshall Islands, Afghanistan, Honduras, Uzbekistan, Mauritania, Dominican Republic, Palau and Tajikistan.

Mr Prosper said yesterday that the American campaign to reach more one-on-one pacts would yield "quite a handful of agreements in coming days and weeks. A lot of states are coming forward, and don't see our agreements as a problem."

The International Criminal Court was set up to prosecute those accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed after 1 July. It will intervene only when a country is unable or lacks the political will to try a suspect.