GERMANY: The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, and the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, have criticised a new UN resolution on Iraq drafted by the US as "not dynamic enough and not sufficient enough".
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, speaking as the Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, made an unexpected visit to Iraq and urged allies to send an extra 15,000 troops to the country, said Washington would consider the criticism of its NATO partners.
The two leaders, both vociferous opponents of the war on Iraq, said they were anxious to help bring peace and stability to Iraq, but said the US position on the role of the UN had not changed enough to warrant a change in their position.
"We are ready to examine the proposals, but they seem quite far from what appears to us the primary objective, namely the transfer of political responsibility to an Iraqi government as soon as possible," said Mr Chirac, after informal talks with Mr Schröder in the German city of Dresden.
"We are still very, very far away from having a resolution in front of us that we could completely back," he said.
Both leaders said they were anxious to study the US draft resolution in full. The French and German leaders expressed their determination to work together as closely now as they did before the war. However, they said they were "forward thinking" and anxious to bring a "perspective of democracy and stability" to Iraq.
"Now is the time to look forward, and that can only happen if the United Nations can take responsibility for the political process and if an Iraqi administration is installed," said Mr Schröder.
The proposed resolution from the US marks a huge change in Washington's Iraq policy and comes as US soldiers are being killed regularly in Baghdad. The resolution would transform the US-led military force into a UN-authorised force, but ultimately under US control.
The determination of France, a permanent Security Council member, to examine the draft and potentially seek "modification and amendments", as Mr Chirac put it, is a setback for the US.
Earlier in the day leading members of Mr Schröder's ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) denied that Washington was putting pressure on Berlin behind the scenes to send troops to Baghdad.
"There are no demands on Germany to do anything in Iraq with its own soldiers," said Mr Olaf Scholz, the SPD chairman.
Meanwhile Mr Rumsfeld said neighbouring Syria and Iran were not doing enough to help stop a wave of guerrilla attacks in the last month, including four car bombings that have killed 120 people, among them the chief UN envoy.
Mr Rumsfeld was meeting military commanders and soldiers in Iraq to discuss the deteriorating security situation.
"We are unhappy about the fact that people come across the Syrian and Iranian border. They know we are unhappy about it," he told reporters on the flight to Baghdad.