The United States has agreed to give the United Nations a bigger political role in overseeing Iraq's transition to democracy, a senior US official said today.
Meanwhile Britain and Spain have welcomed a tentative US timetable for handing over power to an elected Iraqi government.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell set out the timeline for drafting a constitution and holding elections, possibly in a little more than a year, but stressed that it was not a deadline with dire consequences.
The United States is pushing for a new UN resolution to try to get more countries to contribute troops and money to Iraq, but faces opposition from France, Germany and several other UN Security Council nations that want Washington to relinquish power quickly and give the United Nations more say in the process.
The US announced last night it was sending another 15,000 troops to back up its forces already struggling to impose peace in Iraq.
An American official said the US had agreed to give the UN a bigger role in the election and the political transition from one-party rule under Saddam Hussein to a democracy.
The official said the United Nations suggested it should be involved in coalition building in the Arab world.
"And at very grass-roots levels they should be able to find ways to make the political process legitimate in the eyes of the people of Iraq and the Arab world," the US official said. "We've promised to turn that process over to the UN So I think you've seen the United States move quite a bit."
In his speech on Tuesday before the General Assembly, US President W. George Bush spoke broadly about a need for global help and outlined a limited role for the United Nations in writing an Iraqi constitution, training civil servants and overseeing elections.
Mr Powell met ministers from the 14 other security council nations, and dozens of others concerned about the instability in Iraq - including two bombings at UN headquarters in Baghdad in a month. He then returned to Washington last night to work on a revised resolution.
The US official said the timetable suggested by Mr Powell was a response to the French. French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin, stopped en route to a meeting at UN headquarters in New York, refused to answer a question seeking his reaction.
Germany said Mr Powell's idea would have to flow into negotiations on the new resolution, but refused to categorise it in any way. Germany's stand, expressed repeatedly by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, remains that there should be a return to Iraqi sovereignty as soon as possible, but with a "realistic" timeline, a foreign ministry spokesman said in Berlin.
Britain welcomed Powell's statement. "We are committed to elections during the course of next year, and hope this fits in with that," a Foreign Office spokesman said.
Spanish foreign minister Ms Ana Palacio said she was encouraged. "I think that we need a timetable," she said. "This would be a good sign for the Iraqi people and for the international public opinion - that the process is there, that the full exercise of sovereignty by the Iraqi people is on its way after so many decades of a brutal government."
Mr Powell said the timeline was part of a plan outlined by the US civilian administrator in Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, to give power back to the Iraqis.
"Six months seems to be a good timeline to put out there for the creation of this constitution, and also to give a sense of momentum and purpose to the effort of moving toward full restoration of authority over Iraq to the Iraqi people," Mr Powell said after a high-level meeting concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"If it's possible to meet that goal of finishing the constitutional work in six months, then it is quite appropriate to consider that shortly thereafter the people would be able to ratify such a constitution and prepare for elections."