The United States on Monday revised its UN draft resolution, proposing a Dec. 15 date for Iraqi leaders to set a timetable but not putting forward a schedule on ending the occupation.

The draft Security Council resolution, which US officials hope can be adopted on Wednesday, is meant to meet objections to two earlier versions. It proposes the United Nations recognize the 25-member Iraqi Governing Council as an "Iraqi interim administration, which will embody the sovereignty of the state of Iraq."

But the draft, obtained by Reuters, does not create a provisional Iraqi government within months as France, Germany, Russia, China and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan wanted.

It enhances UN duties but does not give the world body a central role in drafting a constitution and organizing elections, putting into doubt whether Annan would return political staff to Iraq following the Aug. 19 bombing on UN offices in Baghdad that killed 22 people.

The draft resolution was the third effort since August by the Bush administration to get Security Council support for a measure aimed at attracting broader financial and military support to rebuild Iraq.

The United States, Britain and Spain, co-sponsors of the resolution are pushing for a vote in time for a donors' conference opening in Madrid on Oct. 23 to raise reconstruction assistance for Iraq.

The resolution probably had the minimum nine votes needed for adoption even before the latest revision. But Washington did not want a split among the council's major powers that would minimize the impact of the resolution.

As in earlier versions, the draft puts foreign troops under a UN-authorized multinational force, led by the US military. This means widening the command center.

The main change in the new version is a call for the Iraqi Governing Council to come up with a timetable by Dec. 15 for a constitution and elections, in cooperation with the US-led occupation authority and a UN representative.

"The notion is to make every effort to convey back to the people of Iraq and to the interim Iraqi administration as many of those authorities and governmental powers as soon as practicable," US Ambassador John Negroponte told reporters.

British envoys said there was room for a provisional Iraqi government to be set up before elections are finally held but the United States so far has been cool to the concept.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters in Luxembourg the latest draft had made progress compared to earlier versions but still required discussion.

"You will see that in this resolution, there's not much of a time frame," he said, adding that deadlines would have been helpful in forming a provisional government.

Much will also depend on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was reluctant to return any staff to Baghdad while security was precarious and while the world body was subordinate to the occupation, known as the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Diplomats said the new resolution was not expected to encourage Annan to move political staff into Iraq as his team would still report, in part, to the occupying authorities, one of his earlier objections.

"It doesn't change the nature of the occupation," said one envoy.

(China Daily October 14, 2003)