"We are anxious to move quickly (on an interim administration in Iraq)... I don't know when it will happen, but certainly we can see what's going to happen in the not-too-distant future," Powell told reporters after meeting Solana at the State Department.

"We're hard at work on this issue. We want an interim authority that is a representative of all the groups who have an interest in the future of Iraq," the secretary added.

Powell, who just came back from a European trip on Thursday, said he and Solana also discussed the Middle East peace process and transatlantic relations.

As to the role of the United Nations in postwar Iraq, Powell said the United States and the EU have been exchanging views on the issue but yet come to any agreement.

"We're at the beginning of a process of dialogue, pragmatic dialogue, to determine what the appropriate role of the United Nations should be," he said.

"The United Nations will be a partner in all of this," he said. "We'll work our way through the intricacies of the role to be played by the United Nations in the days ahead."

Solana stressed that the United Nations will have "a major role" to play.

"We move forward in the idea that we have to continue talking, discussing the subject and taking a very pragmatic approach," Solana said.

"I think it's as far as we can go today, and we are going to continue working on that direction," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2003)