UN considers keeping US forces in Iraq

UNITED NATIONS - The United States and Britain circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution on Wednesday authorising the US-led multinational force in Iraq to remain there through the end of next year.

Council diplomats predicted the measure would be approved in the next week or two, well before the December 31 expiration of the current mandate of the force, which now numbers about 175,000 troops.

Russian Ambassador Andrei Denisov, the council president for November, said discussions would be needed and predicted approval would not be "an automatic procedure."

Washington and London drafted the measure after Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari wrote the council requesting the extension and acknowledged Baghdad's own troops were not yet strong enough to provide security on their own.

The draft circulated on Wednesday complied with Jaafari's request his government be given the right to terminate the mandate before the end of 2006 if it chose to do so.

It also granted his request the council be required to review the new mandate eight months after its approval or at any other time if asked to do so by Baghdad.

The force is dominated by the United States, with some 150,000 troops. Britain has about 9,000 soldiers in Iraq.

The force has suffered steady casualties and constant attacks by Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters.

US President George W. Bush has refused to set a timetable for the troops' withdrawal, despite mounting domestic pressure to do so, saying that would only encourage their foes to try to wait it out.

Under the timetable for a transition to democracy in Iraq, set out in a June 2004 Security Council resolution, Iraqis are to have an elected sovereign government in place by the start of 2006. A new constitution was approved in an October 15 referendum and parliamentary elections are set for December 15.

The measure will nonetheless let the outside force continue taking and holding its own prisoners in Iraq.

It also will require Iraq to keep depositing the proceeds of all its oil sales into an international account monitored by an outside watchdog.

The Security Council set up the account and created an international monitoring board to watch over it, in May 2003, to ensure the US-led occupation did not misuse Iraqi resources.

The interim Iraqi government agreed to keep the safeguards in place to show the international community it was using its oil for the benefit of its people.

- REUTERS