After a year of stalemate, the UN Security Council has offered to lift sanctions on Iraq if it co-operates with a new arms inspection regime.

The resolution outlining the plan was adopted despite the abstention of a number of countries, including Russia, China and France, three of five permanent Security Council members.

China immediately voiced its dissatisfaction with the resolution.

"To put to vote a draft resolution under such circumstances wherein no consensus is reached after prolonged consultations will not possibly solve the age-old Iraq issue," China's UN ambassador Qin Huasun said.

But deputy US ambassador to the UN, Peter Burleigh, said the adoption marked "a profoundly important moment for the Security Council".

He said the resolution "is clear. It is reasonable. It can be implemented".

Russian UN ambassador Sergei Lavrov said that the draft resolution contained "defects and some dangers" but said the British sponsors had agreed to accept some Russian amendments, which allowed Moscow to abstain but not veto the resolution.

Ahead of the vote, France had indicated it would abstain rather than prevent the adoption of the resolution by using its veto.

'Tough but fair'

The resolution stipulates that if Baghdad co-operates for the initial 120 days, it will earn a suspension of sanctions, reviewed every 120 days.

Russia and China wanted sanctions to be suspended sooner.

They say the sanctions should be suspended soon after Iraq allows inspectors to return, and would not require Baghdad to complete specific disarmament tasks.

Diplomats say Paris has been caught uncomfortably in the middle, wary of upsetting its Western allies if it fails to back the draft resolution but worried about prospects for its oil firms in Iraq if it angers Baghdad by supporting the draft.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said that the new resolution would include an improved oil-for-food programme to assist Iraqi civilians.

"It is a tough but fair resolution. Tough on Saddam, fair on the Iraqi people," a Downing Street spokesman said.

Under the resolution a new arms watchdog, the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Committee (Unmovic) will replace the current UN Special Commission (Unscom).

Secretary-General Kofi Annan is due to appoint an executive chairman of Unmovic within 30 days.

The resolution also lifts the revenue cap on Iraqi oil sales under the oil-for-food programme, currently set at $5.26bn every six months.

Failure to co-operate

Khalid al-Douri, head of the Iraqi parliament's Arab and foreign relations committee, said Baghdad completely rejected the resolution, which he described as a bad start to the 21st Century.

UN weapons inspectors have not been in Iraq since the US and Britain bombed the country a year ago for its failure to co-operate with the UN arms commission.

Sanctions were imposed on Iraq after President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990, leading to the 1991 Gulf War. Their removal was subsequently linked to the scrapping of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.