Security Council Peers Review Draft Iraq Resolution
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25 May 2004 -- International leaders today gave a wary welcome to a U.S.-U.K. draft for a new UN Security Council resolution to formally end the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the draft provides what he called a "good basis" for a UN consensus on Iraq.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said the draft needs improvement.
"I do not want to say that we do not agree with this or with that. I'd rather say, in a more constructive manner, that this resolution must be improved on certain points," Barnier said.
In what was seen as Russia's first response to the draft, an unspecified Russian Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying the document raises "many questions."
The head of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, Ghazi Ajil al-Yawir, welcomed the draft but said Iraq's interim government should have full control over development and reconstruction funds as well as the right to tell foreign troops to leave.
The U.S.-British draft says that the coalition will transfer sovereignty to a caretaker Iraqi government on 30 June but leaves the U.S.-led forces wide-ranging powers to maintain security and sets no date for their withdrawal.
(AP/Reuters/AFP/dpa)