Just one week after US forces seized Baghdad, the big powers returned to diplomatic sparring over Iraq's future yesterday after Washington urged an end to UN economic sanctions on the "liberated" country.
Shifting focus from combat to reconstruction amid what it sees as improving security in the ravaged Iraqi capital, the US said it would propose a resolution "in the near future" to wind up the controversial 13-year-old sanctions.
But lurking in the background were unresolved questions about the future UN role in Iraq, invaded four weeks ago by US and British forces without the explicit backing they had sought from the world body.
The EU, divided over Iraq, said yesterday the UN must play "a central role" in rebuilding Iraq but also stressed that the US-led forces in the country had a responsibility to restore stability.
US General Tommy Franks, who commanded the invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein, said after a visit to Baghdad that the orgy of looting that erupted in the city after the American troops arrived was now subsiding.
"The looting goes down every day and I think you will continue to see it go down because the Iraqis are now stepping up and controlling the problems for themselves," he told reporters in Kuwait.
He said 2,200 Iraqi civilians volunteered on Wednesday in Baghdad to work as unarmed police officers.
Franks earlier reported back to US President George W. Bush that water and power were being restored in Baghdad and hospitals were starting to function again after days of anarchy.
"Now that Iraq is liberated, the United Nations should lift sanctions on that country," Bush said on Wednesday.
The sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait barred all trade with Baghdad but to relieve hardship on the Iraqi people, a UN program was established in 1996 that allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy food and essentials.
America's UN ambassador, John Negroponte, said Washington envisioned a "step-by-step procedure" to lift the sanctions.
At the UN, diplomats said an end to sanctions should depend on the UN certifying that Iraq is free of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Its alleged possession of such weapons was the main reason Washington gave for the war.
That in turn raises the question of whether any weapons of mass destruction are going to be found in Iraq. None have been so far, but US commanders say there could be up to 3,000 sites to check.
Franks flew on Wednesday to Baghdad airport where runways are still pockmarked with craters from US bombs. He met troops and military commanders and gave Bush a progress report via videoconference from one of Saddam's abandoned palaces.
The EU statement, issued by current president Greece, said: "The UN must play a central role, including in the process leading towards self-government for the Iraqi people."
But it added: "At this stage, the coalition has the responsibility to ensure a secure environment, including for the provision of humanitarian assistance and the protection of the cultural heritage and museums."
There were few solid clues to the whereabouts or fate of Saddam, who has vanished along with his two sons, Uday and Qusay, and most of his ruling elite, but US Central Command said yesterday that Special Forces had captured Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, a half-brother of Saddam. Al-Tikriti was a presidential adviser and had "extensive knowledge of the regime's workings," said Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks.
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