Key Nations Call for U.N.-Led Force in Iraq

The nations, among the most outspoken opponents of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, responded to Secretary of State Colin Powell’s call this week for a U.N. resolution encouraging member nations to contribute additional troops to efforts in Iraq.

France, along with many of the countries that opposed the war, has said it would like an increased role in Iraq, but with conditions.

“That’s the easy part,” Russian ambassador to the United Nations Sergey Lavrov said. “How, is the more interesting and difficult question.”

Also on Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the Security Council would not support such a resolution if the United States refuses to share responsibility for Iraq’s economic and political future.

“If that doesn’t happen, I think it’s going to be very difficult to get a second resolution that will satisfy everybody,” Annan said after meeting with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Annan, Powell and Straw have held meetings this week focused on finding ways to allow more countries to contribute to the U.S.-led operation in Iraq. Powell has asked for additional manpower and money.

To date, the United Nations has had only a humanitarian role in Iraq. On Thursday, however, following a suspected suicide bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed at least 23 people, the organization said it would pull out a majority of its staff.

“We are reducing drastically at the moment,” U.N. coordinator in Jordan Christine McNab said. “We might have 30 to 50 percent left by the end of this week.”

The U.N. chief envoy to Iraq, Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello, was killed in the bombing.

Anti-U.S. sentiment in Iraq has fostered notions that coalition forces are occupying the country rather than aiding in its reconstruction. This resentment, fueled reportedly by remnants of the ousted Saddam Hussein regime and Islamic militants, has helped sustain a guerilla campaign that has killed 65 U.S. soliders in combat since President Bush announced the end of major combat operations on May 1.

Two more U.S. soldiers died Thursday, the military announced. A gunman shot one soldier dead as he sat in his vehicle 60 miles south of Baghdad. The second soldier died in a fire at a shooting range in the capital. Officials have not released the cause of the fire.

Despite the near daily attacks on coalition troops, the United States has refused to cede military authority in Iraq. Powell has said U.S. leadership maintains “competent control” of the reconstruction efforts and already leads a multi-national force.

Currently, 22,000 troops from 30 nations are aiding coalition forces in Iraq, according to Powell. Among them are Japan, Italy, Spain, Australia, Poland and Norway. The majority of the troops — 11,000 — hail from Britain.

U.N. member nation Turkey has agreed to consider Powell’s request and could send in peacekeepers, though Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said his troops “definitely will not be occupiers.”