RUSSIA: Russia welcomed Washington's drive to forge an international effort to stabilise Iraq yesterday, but said a US draft resolution on a multinational peacekeeping force was a long way from gaining Moscow's approval.
"This initiative deserves attention because the content of the proposed resolution reflects movement toward principles on an Iraqi settlement that Russia has consistently championed," the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, said.
"But at the same time, while the US draft contains movement towards those principles, there's very serious work ahead on this document to make sure they gain full expression," he told reporters in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.
His tone was a subdued version of that struck by France and Germany, which opposed war alongside Russia, and now demand a greater role for the United Nations in Iraq than Washington envisages in its draft resolution.
The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said yesterday he was optimistic that an agreement on the resolution could be reached.
"Some partners are saying, 'Well, it doesn't go far enough'. But everybody recognises that it represents a significant move in the right direction towards further strengthening the role of the United Nations and above all of providing a faster timescale to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqi people," Mr Straw said.
Mr Ivanov said the current US proposals on an international peacekeeping force were too vague for Moscow to make a firm decision on them.
"It \ a general situation, which needs to be concretely defined in terms of [the force's\] mandate, limits and accountability before the UN Security Council," he said.
"Russia will form its position on such a multinational force according to the conditions formulated in the relevant Security Council resolution."
A day after Russia's Defence Minister said Moscow would consider sending troops to Iraq if the UN resolution was acceptable, Mr Ivanov said a US desire to take command of such a force did not present an insurmountable problem.
"Russia doesn't have an allergy against the US leading such a force, but only if \ happened within the framework of a UN mandate," he said.
Russia had no regrets about its vehement anti-war alliance with France, Germany and China. Relations between Washington and Moscow cooled rapidly amid accusations that US forces were targeting the Russian embassy in Baghdad and that Russian firms had illegally sold arms to President Saddam Hussein.
A British mine-clearance expert was killed in an ambush yesterday. Mr Ian Rimell (53) worked for the Mines Advisory Group charity and was shot dead returning to Mosul from work. An Iraqi colleague was critically injured.