He also told Roman radio station Radio Radicale Due that the efforts expended thus far on diminishing the United Nations Security Council's role in the Court, would result in the deletion of the crime of aggression from the ICC statute.

But there remains hope that this trend can be reversed, he said. "We can do it. We still have a reasonable chance. . . until now nothing has happened which would endanger the perspective of a successful outcome." Delegates are working around the clock on the many remaining disagreements, through working groups and informal consultations in the search for "a positive an timely conclusion," Kaul said.

The risks to a fruitful conference lie in "a lot of old thinking, an over-emphasis of sovereignty and the principle of non-interference", he observed. "There is also an exaggerated search for safeguards. . . They seem to fear an effective Court," the diplomat said.

"Let us not forget two things: first, we are talking here about the most heinous crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of agression. Second: there is universal consensus that these crimes must be punished and if states fulfill their obligation to prosecute the perpetrators. . . they have nothing to fear," he added.

Kaul insisted on Germany's stand on including the crime of aggression in the ICC statute: "We believe that not to include this crime would be a refusal to draw an appropriate conclusion from recent history. We need the inclusion . . . for reasons of deterrence and prevention."

The main problem in the proposed inclusion of aggression relates to the fundamental question of who will define an act of aggression by one state to another.

Several countries of the South, particularly Mexico, India, Cuba and in Southern Africa, have expressed reservations or outright opposition to having the Security Council play a determinant role in the Court's future.  Some have proposed that the five permanent members renounce their veto privileges in the Council, to ensure a higher degree of equality, so that China, Britain, France, Russia and the United States are not exempt from the Court's effective jursidiction.

Germany, a candidate for permanent membership in the Council, disagrees. It wants the Security Council in, not out.

"We all have given in the (U.N.) Charter the primary responsiblity for the maintenance of international peace and security to the Security Council. We have predicted - and I repeat this prognosis - that attempts to ignore this responsibility of the Security Council will have the effect that the crime of aggression unfortunately cannot be included in the statute," Kaul said.