France, Russia assail US draft on Iraq

5.00pm

PARIS/MOSCOW - France and Russia said on Friday they were unhappy with a US draft UN resolution to coax troops and cash from reluctant countries to rebuild Iraq.

The two UN Security Council members, echoing criticism by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday, want a provisional Iraqi government set up and close UN involvement in Iraq.

Resistance to the US draft put its approval in question.

But despite growing criticism, President Bush defended going to war in March, brushing off doubts and citing what he said was preliminary evidence from the top CIA weapons hunter that Iraq had been developing banned weapons.

"I can't think of any people who think that the world would be a safe place with Saddam Hussein in power," he said. He was not worried about a CBS News-New York Times poll showing 53 per cent of Americans doubted the war was worth the cost.

Polish troops in Iraq said they had found four French-built advanced anti-aircraft missiles. "To our surprise these missiles were produced in 2003," Polish Defence Ministry spokesman Eugeniusz Mleczak told Reuters on Friday.

France said it had issued no arms export licenses to Iraq since 1990 and that it was impossible its newest missiles, though not weapons of mass destruction, should turn up in Iraq.

Postwar turmoil has pushed Bush back to the United Nations to seek help in controlling and rebuilding the oil-rich land of 26 million people, but US draft resolutions have been criticised.

"Our first impression is... this revised project does not incorporate the change in approach that we are advocating," said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous.

France wants an Iraqi government quickly, receiving executive powers in a gradual U.N.-overseen process.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the US draft was unsatisfactory, and his Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov amplified the point, saying the draft required "serious work."

The comments by France and Russia -- both hold Security Council vetoes -- followed criticism of US policy by Annan.

He told Security Council ambassadors the United Nations could not play a proper political role in Iraq under terms wanted by the United States, UN officials and diplomats said.

Annan's unusual defiance of Washington stiffened resistance in the Security Council to the US resolution. The UN envoy from Spain, which supports the US position, said at least six of the 15-member council might abstain on the vote. "This would be unacceptable," he told reporters.

But Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington was open to suggestions on revising the resolution.

"We all have the same goal... turn (Iraq) over as quickly as possible," Powell told reporters in Washington.

"But we believe we have an obligation to turn it over to a responsible government... and not just turn it over because two or three months have passed and we are anxious to remove (a) burden from ourselves," he added.

Before the war France and Russia prevented Bush from securing UN backing for the military action that ousted Saddam in April.

Postwar occupation forces have faced persistent guerrilla ambushes and bomb attacks which have killed more than 80 US soldiers since major combat ended on May 1.

Bomb attacks killed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, whose influential Shi'ite party is on in a U.S.-picked Governing Council, and top UN official Sergio Vieira de Mello in August.

Thousands of Iraqis thronged the holy city of Najaf on Friday for a ceremony mourning Hakim.

Hakim's younger brother, a leading member of Iraq's Governing Council, said a new constitution should be drawn up by an elected committee and approved in a referendum -- a move that could drag out the process far longer than Washington wants.

Powell had said he hoped a constitution could be ready in six months, followed by polls to select a sovereign government.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq