Secretary-General Kofi Annan ordered new cutbacks of UN staff in Iraq, a blow to demands that the UN help draw up a new constitution which the Bush administration would like completed in six months.
During this week's UN General Assembly session, where the Iraq crisis became a focal point, presidents and prime ministers from Russia to Brazil called for the UN to assume more political responsibility in Iraq.
But drastic reductions among the remaining 86 foreign staff are expected by Saturday following two bombings against the UN compound in Baghdad over the past five weeks that killed nearly two dozen people and injured 160.
Wavering between calls from security experts for a total withdrawal from Iraq and pressure from the US and others to stay the course, Annan on Thursday decided to pull back some of the remaining 86 international staff until their safety would be assured.
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said 42 international staff were in Baghdad and 44 in northern Iraq, and "these numbers can be expected to shrink further over the next few days."
Some 600 foreign staff were in Iraq before the Aug. 19 bombing that killed the head of the UN mission, Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others. On Monday a second bombing killed an Iraqi policeman and injured 19 people.
A UN spokeswoman in Baghdad said yesterday that the decision to pull out international staff would not affect the day-to-day running of the UN's humanitarian programs. The organization's more than 4,000 Iraqi staff members would take on the mantle as they had done throughout the US-led war which deposed Hussein in April, the spokeswoman, Veronique Taveau, said.
"We are committed to our humanitarian work and we are not stopping our programs. Our national staff did a great job during the war and they will do it again," she said.
Taveau said around one third of 42 international staff in Baghdad would leave over the next few days to work from Jordan and Cyprus. She said the latest withdrawal was a temporary measure and would be reassessed daily.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, a sharp critic of the US-led war to oust former president Saddam Hussein, called for a stronger UN role in Iraq on Thursday but did not join France in calling for a swift handover of power to Iraqis.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi demanded an immediate transfer of Iraqi sovereignty and a withdrawal of foreign troops.
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