UN Security Council gives US-led force in Iraq until end-2007

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council unanimously approved an Iraqi request for extending the mandate of the US-led multinational force in war-torn Iraq until the end of 2007 amid a flurry of diplomacy to end the bloodshed.

The 15-member council adopted a US-drafted resolution extending the mandate of the 160,000-strong multinational force, as set forth in Resolution 1546 voted in 2004, until December 31, 2007.

The extension had been requested by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in a letter sent to the council on November 11.

Tuesday's vote came amid a flurry of international diplomacy aimed at stabilizing Iraq, which is in the throes of deadly sectarian violence.

US President George W. Bush and Maliki were scheduled to hold crucial talks in Amman Wednesday and Thursday on the escalating violence in Iraq.

The council made it clear that the mandate of the multinational force "shall be reviewed at the request of the government of Iraq or no later than June 15 2007, and declares that it will terminate this mandate earlier if requested by the government of Iraq."

The resolution, co-sponsored by the United States, Japan, Britain, Denmark and Slovakia, also extended until December 31 next year the arrangements for depositing into the Development Fund for Iraq proceeds from export sales of petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas and for monitoring the Fund by the International Advisory and Monitoring Board.

"We are obviously very pleased with the adoption of Resolution 1723 unanimously extending the mandate of the multinational force in Iraq for another year," US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton told reporters after the vote.

"It shows the resolve to continue to cooperate with the government of Iraq and I think it is very fitting that the council acted just a day or two before President Bush and Prime Minister al-Maliki will meet in Amman," Bolton added.

The United States currently has 144,000 troops in Iraq but faces mounting domestic pressure, particularly from the Democrats who will take control of Congress in January, to begin a withdrawal.

Britain's UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry meanwhile pledged that his government "will continue working in close partnership with the Iraqi government both bilaterally and as a contributor to the multinational force."

"We will continue to assist in the progressive transfer of security responsibilities to the Iraqi security forces," he noted.

Britain currently has some 7,100 troops deployed in southern Iraq, three years after supporting the 2003 US-led invasion, but like the US administration has faced growing public pressure to withdraw its forces.

Monday, London said it expected to withdraw thousands of its troops from Iraq by the end of 2007, in the clearest pledge yet of a pullout from the violence-wracked country.

Other members of the dwindling multinational force echoed those moves as Italy said its 60 to 70 remaining troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of this week and Poland promised to pull its 880 troops out by late next year.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin meanwhile voiced regret that the resolution did not underscore "the importance of continuing the political process in Iraq" and noted that the sectarian violence and division were a "greater threat to the future of Iraq".

In a related development, UN chief Kofi Annan suggested an international peace conference on Iraq that would bring all the Iraqi factions together with UN help, but stressed that it would require adequate preparations.

"I think it would be helpful to have a conference that brings everybody together, along the lines of what we did in the former Yugoslavia and others," he told reporters.

"But I don't think one can organise that conference without other specific actions being taken," he added. "I do not believe, given the bitterness and the level of violence, that they can do it alone. The international community has to help them do it and work with them."

The outgoing secretary general, who is due to step down at the end of December after 10 years in office, also reiterated his view that Iran and Syria needed to be brought in to help in the search for a settlement to end what he described Monday as "almost" a state of civil war in Iraq.

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