The Bush administration on Wednesday withdrew a resolution to renew an exemption from the court after it failed to get enough votes in the UN Security Council. Members cited worldwide anger over the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal and strong opposition from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The United States in the past had threatened to shut down UN peacekeeping missions and in 2002 actually vetoed one when the council hesitated in approving the resolution.

"We will have to examine each of these missions case by case," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington. "We will have to look at it in terms of staffing, providing Americans to participate in peacekeeping missions, what the risk might be of prosecution by a court to which we're not party."

James Cunningham, the US deputy ambassador, who announced the US decision, would not comment on future US actions. He said officials would "take into account" the lack of a resolution "when determining contributions to UN authorized or established operations."

At the same time diplomats said the United States might have difficulties curtailing UN missions at a time it was seeking troops to help in Iraq and had a strong interest in operations in Liberia, Haiti and a future venture in Sudan.

The court, which started operating a year ago in The Hague, Netherlands, was created to try individuals for the world's worst atrocities -- genocide, war crimes and systematic human rights abuses.

It is a tribunal of last resort and would only hear cases of individuals from a country that refused or was unable to press charges, making it unlikely an American would be tried.