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US airs resolution on restoring Iraqi sovereignty

The US was to disclose yesterday the text of a new UN resolution that would call for "full sovereignty" for Iraqis, despite the presence of 130,000 US troops, US and UN officials said.

The text will be presented for the first time to ambassadors at morning Security Council consultations, with US officials having requested a delay on another resolution that would exempt US peacekeepers from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.

The distribution of the draft resolution, which would also ask for approval for a US-led multinational force, came hours before US President George W. Bush was to outline a strategy for Iraq's future in a speech at the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, last night.

Bush plans to lay out in more detail the course for the remaining weeks before the June 30 transition deadline, including highlights of the UN draft resolution on a caretaker Iraqi government that has not yet been formed.

The definition of sovereignty is the most contentious issue, with the Bush administration attempting to assure the UN Security Council they would not be asked to approve an occupation under another name.

The resolution is expected to include language that would ask an interim Iraqi government to define limitations on its powers, such as not adopting long-term legislation before a government is elected in January. An exception, diplomats said, would be a debt relief accord.

UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, now in Baghdad, is due to name a president, a prime minister, two vice presidents and 26 ministers before the end of this month.

But the most controversial issue is defining the duration and duties of a US-led multinational force and its relationship to an Iraqi government and military.

France, Germany and others want a sunset clause that would end the mandate of the force unless a new government requests it stay.

However, British and US diplomats said they preferred a review after a year. But the text will probably make clear that Iraqis can ask the force to leave, US diplomats said.

Another issue is whether Iraqi forces can decline a US-ordered military operation.

While a US commander would be in charge, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last Tuesday that Iraqi troops have the right to "opt out" of military operations.

Germany and others have proposed a kind of Iraqi "national security council" that would include government leaders and the US Central Command to resolve disputes on military action.
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