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UNITED NATIONS - The United States on Monday unveiled its long-awaited postoccupation plans for a sovereign interim government in Iraq and got a generally positive response. But it faced questions about how much say Iraqis will have over U.S.-led forces that will keep the peace.
The U.S. presentation of a draft resolution on Iraq set the stage for intense negotiations with longtime critics of the Iraq war, such as France and Germany, who are demanding a greater role for Iraq's interim government in security issues.
France said Monday that it wants a timetable for the Iraqi government to take control over Iraqi police and security forces, which under the draft would remain under American control.
Under the resolution, the mandate for U.S.-led forces in Iraq would be reviewed after a year - or even earlier if a transitional government due to take power after January elections requests it.
U.S. and British officials said details of the relationship between the interim government due to take power on June 30 and the multinational force will be spelled out in an exchange of letters with the new government, once it is formed.
A British official said London hopes the letters will create a National Security Committee on which Iraqis would sit, giving them veto power over major military operations, such as April's offensive in Fallujah that outraged many Iraqis. Germany has called for such a council as a vehicle for sharing power.
While the draft raises many security issues, the new government would take control of the country's oil and gas riches and the $10.2-billion Development Fund for Iraq where oil and gas revenues and frozen assets have been deposited. It is now run by the occupying powers.
The draft resolution, presented by the United States and Britain at a closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday, would endorse the interim government, due to take power on June 30.
U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is expected to announce the government's makeup by the end of this month, trying to strike a balance between Iraq's competing Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
The draft also authorizes the more than 150,000-strong U.S.-led multinational force to stay in Iraq.
But the draft doesn't answer the key question of how much of a voice Iraq's new government - which in theory will hold full sovereignty - will have over the operation of the international or even Iraqi armed forces.
In contrast to the acrimonious debate in late 2002 when France and Germany blocked U.S. efforts to win a U.N. mandate to invade Iraq, there were positive reactions and pledges to try to get unanimous approval for a resolution.
"I think we will have consensus - but we're going to have to work hard," Chile's U.N. Ambassador Heraldo Munoz said after Monday's meeting.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the new Iraqi government "must be able to make decisions over security issues or else it won't be truly sovereign."
Washington will not seek a vote on the resolution for a week or two, until Brahimi finishes his work on drawing up the interim government, the Associated Press reported, quoting an unnamed senior U.S. official.
QUESTIONS LINGERSome sticking points in the draft U.N. resolution on Iraq presented Monday by the United States and Britain:
How much say will Iraq's new government have over international and even Iraqi armed forces?
Can the Iraqis ask the U.S.-led force to leave?
What does U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi recommend?
Are the United States and Britain transferring full sovereignty to Iraq, and will the interim government have control over all activities, including security?
Will the Iraqi Governing Council be dissolved June 30? It's not mentioned in the resolution.
The Transitional Administrative Law, which has been called an interim constitution, also isn't mentioned. That has raised some questions.
Will other countries respond with significant numbers to the resolution's request for troops for an international force?
- ASSOCIATED PRESS