The British government, which is struggling to win US support for two new UN resolutions on humanitarian aid and the reconstruction of Iraq, is frustrated at being forced to negotiate with some of the most rightwing elements in the US Republican administration.
Senior British sources point out that the US, led by National Security Council member Elliott Abrams, is determined to ensure that former US diplomats take over the running of Iraq after the conflict.
Abrams, a former Reagan administration hawk at the time of the Contra affair, is said to be dismissive of any role for the UN.
Britain wants Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, to take control of the oil for food program from the Iraqi regime, but is facing resistance from security council members. The previous oil for food program, run by the Iraqi authorities with the support of the UN, has collapsed.
The separate UN resolution on the framework for the medium-term reconstruction of Iraq is proving even more difficult to secure.
The US is going ahead with its plans for a civil peacekeeping operation under the direction of Jay Garner, the retired general who directs the Pentagon's new office of reconstruction and humanitarian assistance.
Garner arrived in Kuwait last week and is overseeing the intense recruitment of his staff, largely retired American diplomats.
Tony Blair, eager to rebuild bridges between the US and Europe after the war, wants the UN to be central in giving authority to a new Iraqi administration.
Clare Short, the UK's international development secretary, has pointed out that without a UN mandate neither the World Bank nor the IMF is legally entitled to be involved in Iraqi reconstruction.
US President George W. Bush spoke at the Azores summit of giving the UN a role as a way of allowing it to find what he calls its "legs of responsibility."
France and Germany are concerned that the US would like to give the UN a token role which would render its involvement meaningless.
British officials said Tuesday that even discussions at the UN on the relatively straightforward task of amending the oil for food program were proving difficult. It is understood that Syria, which is the only Arab country on the security council, is reluctant to take part in discussions which assume that Saddam Hussein's regime has fallen.
There are also understood to be rival drafts of a new resolution. John Negroponte, the hard-headed US representative to the UN, is circulating one, while Annan is circulating a second.
One source said, "The timing for what should be a practical resolution is more complicated because the negotiations for the previous resolution [on inspectors] were so bruising."
Britain believes that handing control of the program to Annan would send a powerful signal after the recent bitter divisions at the UN.
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