A leading woman member of Iraq's Governing Council remains critically ill in hospital after being in a gun attack yesterday.
In the latest in a string of attacks on Iraqis cooperating with the country's occupying powers, attackers in Baghdad fired on a car carrying Akila al-Hashemi, a Shi'ite Muslim career diplomat. She was hit in the abdomen.
Some Iraqis have denounced the 25-member Governing Council for cooperating with the US-led administration in overall charge of the country since the war that ousted Saddam Hussein.
Hashemi, who served in Iraq's Foreign Ministry during Saddam's rule, had been due to travel to New York with Iraqi delegates attending the General Assembly meeting.
Meanwhile Europe's three biggest powers France, Germany and Britain failed to resolve their rift over Iraq and its future six months after the war began.
They disagreed on how fast power should be handed back to Iraqis by the United States, which tried again to put the bitter pre-war debate aside as it seeks international help to rebuild and stabilise the country.
Officials said US President George W. Bush would issue a "call to action" at the UN General Assembly next week, urging members to back a new resolution to share the financial and military burden of Iraqi reconstruction.
Leaders of Britain, principal backer of the United States in the war, and Germany and France, main European opponents of the war that began on March 20th, met in Berlin in an effort to overcome their differences over the conflict and its aftermath. But divisions remain.
"Our views are not quite convergent," French President Mr Jacques Chirac told reporters after meeting German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schroeder and British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair.