US/UN: After making some concessions, the United States is pressing for a vote at the Security Council this week - possibly today - on a resolution to lift UN sanctions against Iraq, writes Conor O'Clery, North America Editor from New York
One of the changes would enhance the stature of a proposed UN representative in Iraq, which would still be largely under the control of the US and Britain.
Council members had protested that the UN role would be limited to coordinating humanitarian aid and helping with reconstruction.
The new text calls on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a "special representative" with independent powers, rather than a "special coordinator," to work with the US and Britain.
The UN representative would be asked "to facilitate a process leading to an internationally recognised, representative government of Iraq". This wording implies but does not precisely define a UN role in the US-British process of selecting an interim Iraqi authority.
The new text also makes concessions to Russia which has expressed concern about the status of the $4 billion in contracts Moscow signed with the regime of Saddam Hussein under the UN oil for food programme, that provided food for a majority of Iraqis before the war.
The programme would be phased out over six rather than four months, giving Moscow time to secure approval for the contracts. France also had multi-million dollar pre-war contracts with Baghdad.
The resolution shelves the awkward question of how to get UN verification that Iraq is free of banned weapons - a condition in previous UN resolutions for the lifting of sanctions, when Washington has excluded UN weapons inspectors from the current search for weapons of mass destruction.
The text "reaffirms that Iraq must meet its disarmament obligations" and that the council will "revisit" the mandate of the inspectors at a future date. Meanwhile the US and Britain must keep members informed of the outcome of their disarmament efforts.
The resolution would "preserve" $200 million already set aside for the weapons inspections team, which was pulled out of Baghdad before the war, so that it would survive for possble future use.
The US has recruitred former weapons inspectors in its own search for weapons of mass destruction - the main reason for the US-led invasion of Iraq, but none has been found.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Dr Mohamed ElBaradei has warned of the danger of radioactive contamination in Iraq because of looting at nuclear sites. On Monday he called on Washington to admit his inspectors to Iraq where "nuclear and radioactive materials may no longer be under control".
At the Tuwaitha site in Iraq, the IAEA had sealed nuclear materials that reportedly were exposed or stolen and the barrels used for water storage.
There have been reports of radiation sickness among villagers near Tuwaitha.
None of the three permanent Security Council members, France, Russia and China, who opposed the war has threatened a veto of the resolution, which was originally sumbitted in the aftermath of the war, and would likely abstain, diplomats said.
The US is said to be confident that it will win the nine votes necessary on the 15-member council, in which a majority originally opposed the war.
The new draft, co-sponsored by the UK and Spain, gives the US and Britain, as the occupying powers, control of Iraq and its oil wealth until "an internationally recognised, representative government" takes office.
The resolution was debated at a closed door council meeting yesterday called by Pakistan's UN Ambassador Munir Akram, the current council president.