US pushes for UN backing on Iraq

Mr Powell will be looking for international support

US Secretary of State Colin Powell is to meet envoys from the four other veto-wielding members of the Security Council to try to persuade them to back Washington's Iraq plans.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan arranged the meeting, set for Saturday in Geneva.

It comes on the heels of a speech by President George W Bush calling for the UN to shoulder its "responsibility" in Iraq.

Several Security Council members - including France, Russia and Germany - are reluctant to approve any resolution that appears to give retroactive blessing to the Iraq war, which they opposed.

They have also insisted that any UN mandate give genuine power to the international organisation, rather than merely being a fig leaf for a US-run operation.

Hint of compromise

But in calling Saturday's meeting, Mr Annan hinted that the UN might be willing to leave the military aspect of the Iraq mission in Washington's hands.

The US wants other countries to contribute troops

"The model of Afghanistan, Kosovo or East Timor - these are all in discussion," Mr Annan said.

The UN runs civil administrations in Kosovo and Afghanistan, while the US and others have taken the lead military role.

The US is not prepared to put its troops under UN command.

Its draft resolution on Iraq would leave Washington in charge of the military occupation but grant the UN and the US-backed Iraqi governing council a role in running elections.

The Iraqi statement that they destroyed all the biological and chemical weapons which they had in the summer of 1991 may well be the truth Hans Blix, former chief weapons inspector

As Mr Annan worked to bring the negotiators to the table, former chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said Iraq could have been telling the truth about having destroyed its banned weapons.

In one of his strongest statements yet on the subject, the retired Mr Blix told an American television network he was "inclined to think that the Iraqi statement that they destroyed all the biological and chemical weapons which they had in the summer of 1991 may well be the truth".

The US and UK cited Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction as one of their main reasons for going to war in the spring.

Mr Annan has called for representatives of China, France, Russia and the UK to meet Mr Powell. They have not all officially confirmed they will attend.

The group, each member of which has a veto on the council, will be hoping to overcome differences over the new resolution, the BBC's Gordon Corera says.

Fresh funds

The meeting comes as the Bush administration defends its call for $87bn to continue its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"One has to look, sure, at the cost... but one has also to look at the cost if one were to decide to throw in the towel," Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said en route back from a visit to the two countries.

Rumsfeld: Cost of staying is less than cost of giving up

President Bush has been criticised by political opponents for asking Congress for the extra funds for the coming year.

In a speech to the nation on Sunday, Mr Bush said the new money was needed to tackle security and reconstruction in Iraq which he described as "the central front" in a global war against terrorism.

In what was his first national address since declaring in May that America's mission in Iraq had been accomplished, Mr Bush appealed for international help to resolve Iraq's security problems.

According to a senior figure in the Bush administration, the president's $87bn plan would take the US budget deficit to at least $525bn, or 4.7% of gross domestic product.

The budget deficit is already at record levels, but the official told reporters that the projected figure was "manageable".

'False link'

Howard Dean, currently the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination in next year's US presidential election, accused Mr Bush of conflating two separate issues: Iraq and terrorism.

Dean accused Bush of misleading the public

Mr Bush, he said, "deliberately left a false impression: one, that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11; and two, that there were terrorists actively working out of Iraq."

On Monday, Mr Rumsfeld defended the president, suggesting that internal US criticism could be exploited by America's enemies.

"It does complicate it, it does make it more difficult but I guess that's life," he said.

Mr Rumsfeld added that the war on terror remained "global" and involved "going after the terrorists and finding their haven and disrupting their networks".