Washington ? After a high-profile pitch at the United Nations for more countries to send troops to Iraq, the Bush administration is encountering resistance and may not seek a Security Council resolution after all, U.S. officials said Monday.

“We have not yet made a determination,” Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters, alluding to the possibility of a new resolution.

Other officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted the strong stand that some U.N. members had taken against the U.S. decision to go to war with Iraq in March without the council’s blessing.

Asked about the status of any new resolution, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, said, “We’re nowhere near a text on Iraq.”

Secretary of State Colin Powell interrupted his vacation last Thursday to travel to New York to make the case for a new council resolution.

Powell had hoped that outrage over the devastating bombing of the U.N. compound in Iraq two days earlier would make the council amenable to a resolution explicitly welcoming a broadening of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

But the administration has been sending contradictory signals about whether a larger force is needed in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a Veteran of Foreign Wars convention in San Antonio on Monday that the United States “can afford whatever military force level is necessary and appropriate for our national security.”

He said that if Gen. John Abizaid, who heads the U.S. Central Command, believes additional troops are needed, “he will have additional troops, let there be no doubt about it.”

Negroponte said that, in addition to seeking a broadening of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, the administration wants more countries to provide financial assistance and to help with police training.

But officials said that initial soundings among council members on Powell’s proposal were not encouraging.

Powell has made clear that Washington won’t cede any of its decision-making powers in Iraq.

France, Russia, India and other countries have ruled out sending soldiers to Iraq unless a multinational force is authorized by the United Nations.