UNITED NATIONS. Apr 3: Tlx Security Council opened its meeting on a ceasefire resolution that would pave the way for Allied troop* to withdraw from Iraq and demand the destruction of Baghdad • dangerous weapons

A vote on the US-initiated resolution is expected after •everai delegation*. including Yemen. Zaire and Zimbabwe. Cute. and the Ivory Coaat. ad drew the Council on the rrwa sure The meeting began an hour and .’half behind sc hed uk-

If Iraq formally accepts the

resolution, a ceasefire comes into effect, allowing the United Nations to move observers into a buffer zone between Kuwait and Iraq.

Iraq will be asked to scrap Scud missile*, pay war repara tk>n* and do without all but essential goods for months

"It'• a bad. bad resolution, but sometimes you have to •wallow the bitter pill. Iraqi Ambassador Abdul-Amir Al-Anbari told reporters

But Anbari said he did not know what Baghdad * official response would be to the doc ument he has called humlHat Ing and an interference in

Iraq* internal affairs

US Ambassador Thomas Pickering, who beat back ob jecllona to the text from several non-aligned nations on Tuesday said. "We believe this is a tough but an extremely fair resolution*.

British Ambassador David Hannay said the document brings to a substantive conclusion the 13 resolutions on the Gulf crisis the Council has adopted since Iraq Invaded Kuwait last August 2.

Iraq said today. Its troops had recaptured Sulaimantya the last major town tn Kurdish rebel hands.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, fearing brutal reprisals after their poet-Gulf war uprls Ing. fled towards Iran. Turkey and Icymountain sanctuaries ahead of President Saddam Hussein's advancing army

The official Iraqi newt Agency INA reported the In habitants of Sulaimantya ‘joyfully greeted" Mddam x troop*.

It did not say when the era die of Kurdish nationalism had fallen but Its capture appeared to spell the end of a month long attempt by Kurds and Shl ttes tn Iraq's south heartland to topple Saddam

Soviet Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov dubbed the un-. preccdented. lengthy ceasefire document as the mother of alt resolutions.

The resolution reflects Washington's desire to get a permanent ceasefire and ex trlcate its ground forces from Iraq while civil war rages

In a last-minute compromise sought by Soviet Union, the text was altered to exclude the destruction of missiles with a range under 150 km (95 miles) This would remove any missiles capable of reach Ing Israel but leave intact battlefield weapons

Iraq also must channel some of its future oil revenue* into a fund for war damages.

Once its weapons of mass destruction are destroyed Iraq can export oil and any other goods and will have access to assets frozen abroad.

Sulaimantya was stronghold of the Kurd's best known recent leader. Mustapha Barazani, whose son Masoud heads the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). one of several groups campaigning for auton omy from Baghdad. The town has long had a reputation of being the first to rise and among the last to fall.