The US will push for a UN Security Council vote on a second Iraq resolution whether or not it can be sure of gaining majority support, President George Bush said on 6 March. Speaking at a news conference broadcast on primetime television, he said that such a vote would force Security Council members to 'show their cards - and to let the world know where they stand when it comes to Saddam'. He repeated the assertion that signs of Iraqi compliance with UN weapons inspectors were merely a 'wilful charade' and his belief that more time for the inspectors to carry out their work would be pointless, unless Iraq decided to co-operate fully. The link between Al-Qaeda and the Baghdad regime was restated: Bush said that the regime had provided shelter and funding to terrorists. The president made clear that the decision on whether or not to go to war was imminent, saying that the US was in the final stages of diplomacy. The US, the UK and Spain jointly tabled a second resolution on 27 February essentially authorising the use of force against Iraq.