Blair seeks fresh UN resolution on Iraq

British Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan (R) leave a press conference where they talked about the situation in Iraq on Thursday after they met at a private residence in New York ahead of a Bush-Blair meet in Washington. PHOTO: AFP

After meeting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York, Blair said there was now a common purpose in the international community over Iraq.

He also denied being disappointed with the US endorsement of Israel's plan for withdrawal from Gaza.

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The talks came ahead of Blair's meeting with President George W Bush.

One year after the fall of Saddam Hussein, coalition troops are up against renewed uprisings across the country.

Critics claim the Americans' use of overwhelming firepower to put down such opposition is serving only to unite the people of Iraq against the occupying forces.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has announced that some 20,000 US troops now serving in Iraq are to have their tours of duty extended.

At a joint news conference in New York with Annan, Blair confirmed that circumstances would require a new UN resolution ahead of the June handover.

He also confirmed that talks were continuing and that he and President Bush were waiting for the UN special envoy in Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, to come back with proposals which he has been discussing with the parties and stakeholders on the ground.

"We have to make sure we give Iraqis the opportunity they seek," he said.

Annan said that divisions in the international community caused by the Iraq war were "beginning to heal", adding that he was hoping for the full co-operation of member states over a new resolution.

Turning to the US decision to back Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral plan for withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and some parts of the West Bank, Blair denied that the roadmap for peace had been sidelined.

AFP adds: Britain remains "completely committed" to the handover of power to an Iraqi government at the end of June, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Friday despite a wave of violence in the country. "The situation in Iraq is serious," Straw acknowledged as he arrived for a European Union meeting.

"But it is the interest of all Iraqis as well as the international community that we make as much progress as we can to secure a democratic and representative Iraq for the benefit of the Iraqi people," he said.