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Allawi Praises UN Vote, Bush Wants NATO In Iraq


(file photo) 9 June 2004 -- Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has praised the UN Security Council resolution backing the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis.

"We welcome the resolution, it is an effort made by the Iraqi people and by the friends of Iraq," he said. Allawi also told reporters today that Iraq will need foreign troops to fight insurgents even after the handover on 30 June.

U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking at a G-8 summit on Sea Island, Georgia, said he would like to see NATO take on a larger role in Iraq.

Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair today had talks today on possible NATO involvement in training Iraqi security forces.

But French President Jacques Chirac, speaking to reporters today in Sea Island, said he did not think it was "the mission of NATO to intervene in Iraq."

Some 15 NATO countries already have military forces in Iraq.

(Reuters/AFP/dpa/AP)

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