US seeks support on Iraq with new UN resolution

The United States circulated a new UN draft resolution to gain support for its Iraq policy, but faced a worsening row with Baghdad yesterday over the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq.

Diplomats at the United Nations said the new resolution would call on Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council to fix a deadline by December 15 for the transfer of power to Iraqis.

But it doesn't offer a firm deadline for the handover, nor does it substantially beef up the political role of the United Nations in the transition process, key demands of such critics of the war as France, Germany and Russia.

Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council itself bared its teeth at Washington with continuing opposition to Turkish troops entering the country at all, despite a US call for help in establishing security.

Baghdad is deeply suspicious of Turkish intentions, particularly in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, which Ankara regards as a strategic area for its own security.

Ankara's military, meanwhile, said it would not decide how many soldiers to send until it knew which part of the country they were going to, a sensitive issue.

The United States and Britain invaded Iraq in March, citing its weapons of mass destruction - none of which have so far been found.

US troops are also still searching for ousted president Saddam Hussein, and a senior officer said yesterday he was believed to have been near his home town of Tikrit recently and was leading resistance to the US-led occupation.

"We have clear indications that Saddam was here recently," said Major Troy Smith, executive officer of the 1st Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division in the Tikrit area north of Baghdad.

"Do I know where he is? No," he added.

US troops in Iraq came under fresh fire yesterday. In the north, one US soldier was killed at the oil refining town of Baiji, while a second died in a grenade attack in the Tikrit area. Their deaths brought to 96 the number of US soldiers killed by hostile fire since President George W. Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

In Luxembourg, the European Union agreed to a modest donation of €200 million towards rebuilding, ahead of a major Iraq donors' conference in Madrid next week.

A senior Iraqi electricity ministry official told a Middle East power conference in Abu Dhabi that Iraq needed immediate investment of about $8 billion to generate enough electricity to meet current demands.

"That would only meet our short-term needs. To meet our long-term targets and become self-reliant (in electricity), we are asking for a total of $25 billion," the official said.

US Commerce Secretary Don Evans started a 48-hour visit to Iraq under tight security in a bid to attract foreign investment.

Washington's leading critics have called for a timetable to return sovereignty to Iraq sooner rather than later and boost the role of the United Nations in post-war reconstruction.

The United States has called for more foreign troops and cash to help it out in Iraq, with Bush under increasing political pressure at home ahead of an election year in 2004. But it has been reluctant to dilute its control in Baghdad.

The latest draft resolution at the United Nations is co-sponsored by US allies Britain and Spain. No date has been set for a vote, or for its formal introduction to the Council.

Turkey was the only major country to agree to a recent US request to send troops to Iraq, but the Governing Council wants no forces from neighbouring countries.

"The Governing Council feels it is better not to involve and engage any of Iraq's neighbouring countries in peacekeeping missions because of the sensitivities of the whole issue," said Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, in Malaysia for an Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit.

However, in an interview published in yesterday's pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, he hinted at compromise.

"The mission of Turkish forces must be limited to peacekeeping and not involve intervention in Iraq's internal affairs, and also supply lines must be under the control of coalition and local or Kurdish forces," he said.