Russia, France and others want the US to make sure Iraqis have a major say in their future before endorsing any UN resolution on the official end of the occupation, diplomats said on Wednesday.
Both countries are engaged in talks among the 15 UN Security Council members, organized by the US and ally Britain, to discuss concepts for a resolution that would endorse an interim Iraqi government to take office on June 30.
No text was circulated on Wednesday at the second informal meeting, in order not to interfere with complex talks currently conducted in Baghdad by UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on the form of a caretaker government. It is to be in office until elections planned for January, 2005.
But so far there is little rancor reminiscent of the split over endorsing the US-led invasion of Iraq last year, which France, Russia, Germany, China and others opposed.
Vyacheslav Trubnikov, Russia's first deputy foreign minister, told the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper Moscow would be prepared to vote for the resolution if it meets Iraqi interests "100 percent."
France, on the other hand, fears a resolution would not bypass who would control what, with the US-led coalition still holding onto military and police power. Its officials have told council members the measure is among the most important ever adopted on Iraq.
It is "extremely important" the Security Council's resolution defines "the framework for the transfer and the political reconstruction of Iraq," French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said in Brussels on Monday.
"We are trying to persuade the Americans to agree to a real transfer of sovereignty," he said, adding that a new Iraqi government "must have its say on security matters."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell in New York last week, proposed two resolutions, diplomats said.
The first would be adopted to support whatever caretaker government Brahimi might devise. The second one could be passed before or after the June 30 handover but with input from the new government.
Few council members have signed up to this concept but China backed it at Wednesday's meeting, envoys said.
Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram, this month's council president, however, said his country was "pragmatic on exactly how it is done as long as the transfer is made, it is legal and it is acceptable to the Iraqi people."
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