Anti-war trio repeat call for bigger UN role in Iraq

Ambassadors of the three nations, all of which opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq, addressed the UN Security Council after the United States and Britain gave a detailed presentation of progress in Iraq since the war.

"We're disappointed there is no mention of the United Nations. We think that is wrong," Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov told the council after US Ambassador John Negroponte and British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry spoke.

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Lavrov, along with Ambassadors Jean-Marc de la Sabliere of France and Gunter Pleuger of Germany picked up on a proposal from Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of an Afghan-style conference leading to the formation of an interim government.

Sabliere said that such a conference did not have to duplicate the one organised for Afghanistan in December 2001 in Bonn, Germany. He said it needed a forum that "would be inclusive" and be run by the United Nations to the process international legitimacy.

"It is a matter of urgency to rebuild consensus in Iraq, at the regional level, and within the international community," the French ambassador said.

Negroponte and Jones Parry said only Iraqi leaders could consider the idea of a broader conference. "It is for the Iraqis to look at options and then identify the best means. We cannot be prescriptive," Jones Parry told reporters.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has not sent political staff back into Baghdad for safety reasons and said he was not "looking for a repeat" of the Bonn conference. Iraqis plan to choose a provisional government through caucuses within the country and not a forum outside.

Annan said on Thursday he intends to base political staff in Cyprus or in Jordan and have key people commute into Baghdad. On Aug. 19, a bomb wrecked the UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22 staff and visitors.

But Pleuger told the council that "we have to broaden the political process to include all political and societal forces that reject violence and terrorism" adding that the Bonn conference had worked so why not try it again.