THE UN: The United States and Britain pressed UN Security Council members to pass a resolution quickly on Iraq's future and struggled yesterday to consider a flurry of amendments to the text.
Initial reaction to the latest draft of the resolution was received positively by Russia and France. The resolution is the fourth draft in two weeks, and aims to win a unanimous vote today among the 15 council nations.
New proposals emerged, including a controversial one from France on Iraq's right to refuse major US military operations. Chile, Brazil and Spain seek to strengthen international humanitarian law and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants some language changes on the world body's role.
Control of the 160,000 US-led troops is the most contentious issue in the draft, which gives international endorsement to the interim Iraqi government that is to assume power on June 30th and authorises a multinational force under American command.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mr Yuri Fedotov said the amended resolution was a great improvement on earlier drafts.
"The Security Council draft resolution has been really improved," he said. "It reflects proposals from Russia, France, Germany, China and other Security Council members."
"In particular it has confirmation that the new Iraqi government will have full sovereignty, control over natural resources and security forces."
France said negotiations on the resolution were heading towards a conclusion, but the draft still needs a number of adjustments.
Prime Minister Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin said: "We are on the way to closing this subject. There are still a number of important points regarding the sovereignty of the Iraqi people to which France is very attached. There are still a number of points to finalise."
At a special session on Sunday, the Security Council received separate letters from US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Iraq's new Prime Minister, Mr Iyad Allawi.
The letters pledge the US commander and Iraqi leaders would consult on and coordinate "fundamental security and policy issues including policy on sensitive offensive operations" through a new national security committee.
As the UN debated the coordination of the US-led troops in Iraq, it was announced the US plans to cut its troops in South Korea by a third by the end of next year, as part of a shift to use higher technology in defence.
Although communist North Korea's 1.1-million troops dwarf the 37,500 US troops now in the south, any reduction is closely watched because the contingent's symbolic value outweighs its numerical strength. Ally South Korea has 690,000 troops.
A total of 3,600 US soldiers are already earmarked for deployment to Iraq from South Korea in the coming months - (Reuters)