The marathon contest between Guatemala and staunch US critic Venezuela for a seat on the UN Security Council was set to resume next week after voting in the General Assembly on Thursday remained deadlocked.
US-backed Guatemala prevailed over Venezuela in 13 rounds of voting in the Assembly on Thursday but failed to secure the two-thirds majority required to win the Security Council's non-permanent seat up for grabs.
The president of the 192-member General Assembly, Haya Rashad al-Khalifa of Bahrain, announced at the end of the 13th inconclusive round that the next round would take place next Wednesday.
The announcement came as the two rivals began showing the first signs of weariness and willingness to accept a compromise to break the impasse.
Guatemala, strongly backed by the United States, and oil-rich Venezuela, whose firebrand President Hugo Chavez has been a thorn in the side of Washington, have now been involved in 35 inconclusive rounds since Monday, all but one handily won by Guatemala, with one ending in a tie.
Both said they intended to stay in the race but began hinting that a compromise candidate may have to be found to break the deadlock.
"To find a consensus candidate is one of the ideas floating around here, " Guatemalan Foreign Minister Gert Rosenthal told reporters here.
"We don't like it because we are so close to the (required) two-thirds (majority)," he added. "But we are not stubborn."
Venezuelan officials, meanwhile, sent mixed signals about a possible consensus candidate.
Venezuelan General Alberto Muller Rojas, a top adviser to President Hugo Chavez, told AFP "neither of the two parties (Venezuela and Guatemala) will get the necessary votes."
He added that the impasse will end with "the election of an outsider."
But Rojas added that Venezuela would "not withdraw its candidacy as long as Guatemala does not withdraw its own."
But Venezuela's UN ambassador, Francisco Arias Cardenas, however, ruled out a withdrawal by either country.
"That Venezuela withdraws because it has fewer votes? It's not possible because it would be admitting the veto power of the United States," he told Venezuela's VTV television.
Other Latin American countries appeared to be staking out positions ahead of a decision to turn to a third, compromise candidate.
"If Venezuela is not a candidate, we believe that it should be replaced by somebody from Mercosur," Argentine ambassador Cesar Mayoral said, referring to South America's biggest trading group which brings together Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela.
His Chilean counterpart Alejandro Foxley said his country preferred to play a "constructive role" in the search for a solution and felt that Uruguay "is an excellent country to represent us all in the Security Council."
Meanwhile US Ambassador John Bolton, who has worked frantically behind the scenes to ensure Venezuela's defeat, said: "The decent thing to do here is for the losing candidate to withdraw and see if the Latin American Group can coalesce around Guatemala or somebody else."
"This is the kind of behaviour (Venezuela's) that we are worried about, it serves no purposes," Bolton added. "We can live with whatever is acceptable to Guatemala."
Washington fears that if Venezuela wins the seat, the Chavez government will use it to be disruptive, routinely oppose US measures and openly attack the United States.
Chavez saves his most vitriolic attacks for the Bush administration and in an address to the UN General Assembly last month said the podium still "smelled of sulphur" a day after US President George W. Bush had used it.
With UN rules allowing for indefinite voting, the battle could still go on for some time.
A similar standoff between Cuba and Colombia in October 1979 dragged on for more than two months and 154 rounds. It ended in January 1980 with the election of a third candidate, Mexico.
The council seat up for grabs is being vacated at the end of the year by Argentina. The assembly has elected Belgium, Italy, South Africa and Indonesia to the four other open non-permanent seats on the council.
The Security Council is made up of 15 members, including five veto-wielding permanent members -- China, the United States, France, Britain and Russia -- and 10 non-permanent members, five of which are replaced every year.