UN chief Kofi Annan launched a diplomatic drive today to bridge differences between Washington and its critics over the future of American-occupied Iraq.
The secretary-general called a meeting of foreign ministers of the five permanent, veto-holding members of the Security Council for Geneva today to seek a compromise on a US call for international support to help it increase security and speed up reconstruction in Iraq.
US President George W. Bush warned Americans in a televised speech on Sunday of a tough struggle ahead before peace and security were achieved in Iraq. Underlining the dangers and problems, two US soldiers were wounded today when their convoy struck an explosive device on a Baghdad bridge.
Washington is seeking 15,000 more troops from other nations and reconstruction funds to back its own commitment of 130,000 troops and billions of dollars in Iraq. Britain, the closest US ally in its March invasion of Iraq, said it was sending an extra 1,200 troops to bring its forces there to over 12,000.
Critics of the United States, including France and Russia, who opposed the war on Iraq, want a greater role for the world body than Washington envisages.
But today France offered Washington a ray of hope by saying Bush's speech, in which he urged the international community to settle its differences over Iraq, offered prospects for an agreement.
Mr Annan told a news conference at UN headquarters in New York he would be willing to consider a UN "political facilitating process" to help devise a constitution and plan elections.
The permanent members of the Security Council are the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.