US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a delicate meeting in Geneva today, will push for a reinforced UN role in Iraq while maintaining firm US control over reconstruction of the war-torn country.
Powell will be meeting with his counterparts of the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France and Russia -- and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
He can count on the support of Britain, Washington's closest ally in the war.
But he will be facing stiff opposition from France and Russia, which, backed by China, have tabled amendments to a US resolution that would water down US prerogatives and shift much of the US say in Iraq to the UN.
The French counter-proposals were drawn up jointly with Germany, a non-permanent member of the security council which, along with Paris and Moscow and, to a lesser degree Beijing, had fervently opposed the war.
US officials have been downplaying the stakes of today's meeting to avoid the impression it will signal a return to the boisterous debates that preceded the war.
The White House claimed the French and Germans were not opposed to the idea of a new resolution, and the State Department said Powell and Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov had had a "constructive discussion" on the matter.
"We would expect the discussion [today] to be about the concepts of how we go forward in the resolution and generally with the UN on Iraq, not a negotiation on the text itself," spokesman Richard Boucher said earlier this week.
US diplomats also have been stressing the Geneva meeting would constitute an "informal discussion," and not negotiations on precise measures to be taken in Iraq.
A US plan presented last week includes the creation of a multinational force under UN mandate but US command, aimed at encouraging more countries to send troops to Iraq.
But Washington's capacity to ease its load by sharing political power in Iraq and gaining a greater international contribution, both in troops and cash, remained uncertain.
Even the fact of its again going before the UN, which it ignored when it invaded Iraq, has been seen as an about-face by US President George W. Bush's administration, under pressure of the nagging resistance to US troops in Iraq and the skyrocketing cost of keeping them there.
A leading US "hawk," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, assured a Senate committee the US was ready to share political authority in Iraq with its allies in reconstruction operations.
Washington wants "more international troops to share the burden of providing stability forces," he said.
"We're prepared to do what's needed to make it work."
The State Department indicated that Washington had no intention of being shunted aside after having borne the brunt of the military, political and economic effort in Iraq.
"Proposals have to be grounded in the reality of the current situation," said Boucher.
"You can't pretend the war never happened, you can't pretend the coalition never happened, you can't pretend that the Iraqis have not already made considerable progress under the governing council."
The US resolution to be discussed in Geneva "takes as a point of departure the reality of the situation, that the coalition is already working with the governing council, the Iraqis, to move forward toward constitutional elections and also to move forward on the exercise of sovereignty."
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