UN unmoved by US draft resolution for troops, cash

Washington hoped made no headway in drumming up support for a resolution it hoped would persuade wary nations to help stabilize and rebuild Iraq.

US ambassador John Negroponte denied that the measure had been all but killed off by the harsh criticism of the past few days, much of it from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

"Now is just the time to take a brief pause," he said, acknowledging that no date had even been set to reopen debate on the draft.

Council diplomats suggested that Washington was in a quandary after Annan forcefully opposed the resolution. He said it left no UN role in shaping post-war Iraq's political process.

Annan, France and Germany favored a quick handover of power to Iraqis who would then write a constitution and hold elections.

The United States wanted a constitution written first, which could take a year or more before elections. Britain and Spain, which supported the war on Iraq, backed the resolution.

Handing over power too quickly to Iraqis risks dooming the nation to failure, US officials said.

In Ankara, the government's spokesman, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, told reporters that all ministers had signed a motion calling on parliament to authorize the dispatch of Turkish soldiers to Iraq, in response to a US request for military help in the increasingly turbulent country.

The minister explained that the motion limited the term of the deployment to one year, but did not specify how many soldiers might be sent and to which region of Iraq.

Turkish public opinion is overwhelmingly against sending troops to Iraq, but the ruling Justice and Development Party has a comfortable majority in parliament and its MPs are expected to approve the move.

The Iraqi leadership, and particularly the Iraqi Kurds who have had stormy relations with Ankara, have expressed opposition to the idea of a Turkish deployment.

But eager to win a say in the shaping of postwar Iraq and make up for its failure to back the war, Ankara has indicated it is willing to send up to 10,000 troops to help its US ally restore stability in its neighbor's territory.

"Turkey is the first country to be affected by developments in Iraq, both negative and positive... We cannot just stand by and watch what is happening there," Cicek said.

The United States on Monday lauded the Turkish decision and restated its pledge to help Ankara in fighting Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

US President George W. Bush is under growing pressure to find international partners to bear the mounting cost -- in lives and in dollars -- of the Iraq occupation.

On the diplomatic front, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder urged political not military action in Iraq to allow its people to regain their sovereignty.