Push for Expanded UN Role in Iraq: Chinese FM

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, September 15, 2003

Push for Expanded UN Role in Iraq: Chinese FM

A new United Nations (UN) resolution is needed to expand the agency's role in rebuilding Iraq, Chinese FM Li Zhaoxing said Saturday in Geneva. The international community hopes sovereignty and stability will be restored and reconstruction occur in Iraq as soon as possible.

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A new United Nations (UN) resolution is needed to expand the agency's role in rebuilding Iraq, Chinese FM Li Zhaoxing said Saturday in Geneva.

Li also told a special meeting on Iraq attended by five permanent members of the UN Security Council that the international community hopes sovereignty and stability will be restored and reconstruction occur in Iraq as soon as possible.

An expanded UN role in the reconstruction effort would help Iraqis live in peace and develop their economy and would also be conducive to peace and development in the Gulf and Middle East, he added.

Li said the five permanent UN Security Council members shoulder important responsibilities for world peace and security and should co-operate on current issues.

The special meeting, chaired by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was convened mainly to discuss a US-proposed draft resolution on Iraq.

"They (the foreign ministers) will contribute to building consensus toward the future of Iraq, including the definition of the UN role," Annan told reporters after talks with foreign ministers from China, Russia, the United States, Britain and France.

On the sidelines of the meeting, he said the five foreign ministers stressed the importance of the Israelis and the Palestinians continuing to implement the "roadmap" peace plan.

"The ministers recognize that both sides have obligations under the plan," Annan said.

The UN chief said the so-called Mideast quartet, the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, had agreed to hold an ambassadors' meeting later this month in New York to seek ways to move forward the peace plan.

Speaking alongside Annan after the meeting, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the talks had given them a basis for further discussions in New York next week.

He said he was encouraged by the talks that had shown "many points of convergence." But some difficulties remained to be worked out.

"Of course, there are differences of opinion on certain aspects of our draft resolution," Powell told reporters.

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