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Muslim nations want pivotal UN role in Iraq

Baghdad's provisional governing council blocks effort for US troops withdrawal deadline

Reuters, Putrajaya
Foreign ministers meeting in Malaysia sought the rewording of an Islamic summit resolution on Iraq yesterday to strengthen a call for a dominant role for the United Nations.
But the US-backed Iraqi Provisional Governing Council blocked efforts by some countries in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to set a deadline for US-led occupation forces to leave.
There was a debate on putting a
specific time for the US to withdraw," Yonatri Rilman, an Indonesian delegate, told Reuters. "But it was not accepted. Hie Iraq officials themselves preferred an uncertain time."
A draft resolution formulated by the foreign ministers to be given to leaders at the OIC summit on Thursday only called on the UN Security Council to seek a timetable for tlie "withdrawal of the occupying power from Iraq as soon as possible."
Tlie draft, seen by Reuters, also
said tlie Security Council should ensure the establishment of a constitution accepted by the Iraqi people in addition to forming a representative government elected by the Iraqi people.
And crucially, it said the United Nations should play a central role in Iraq, covering all aspects of politics, security and economics.
Tlie Malaysian hosts were ada mant that the United Nations should take charge, while welcoming signs that Washington would pass more authority to the Iraqi Provisional Governing Council in mid-December.
"The UN should be the one that supervises, undertakes the whole exercise and it would be easier for it to have international legitimacy," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters.
The summit in Putrajaya, Malaysia's new administrative capital, will be the largest gathering of Muslim leaders since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who had been due to attend, pulled out due to negotiations at the Security Council in New York over the latest US draft on Iraq.
The United States revised its draft resolution on Monday to include a deadline of December 15 for the handover of power to the Iraqis, with the Governing Council performing the role as interim administration.
Some delegates welcomed that as a step forward.
"Of course this is a serious and genuine move and if implemented in good faith, and conditions are conducive to the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty, it will be good for the Iraqi people, the region and the Muslim world," Musa Braizat, a senior Jordanian Foreign Ministry official, told reporters.
But the US draft resolution did not create a provisional government.
Nor did it give the United Nations a central role in drafting a constitution and organizing elections, putting in doubt whether Annan would return political staff to Iraq following the August 19 bombing of UN offices in Baghdad that killed 22 people.
It was unclear whether the latest US draft would find favor among the Muslim countries Washington hopes might share some of the burden of stabilising and reconstructing Iraq.
"We have to study the document before we can make any assessment," a senior Saudi delegate told Reuters. "But any move to enhance the role of the UN is a positive move."
Annan had been expected to open a business forum on Wednesday on the sidelines of the OIC summit and the meetings leading up to it, before attending the summit itself.
"He's involved in delicate negotiations at the Security Council, so he can't leave the country," a UN official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.