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The UN Security Council must vote on what kind of a role the United Nations is to play in the reconstruction of a post-war Iraq, British Trade and Industry Secretary of State Patricia Hewitt said Sunday.
"The longer-term reconstruction does need to have an Iraqi-led administration and our view is in order to create that interim and then that long-term Iraqi administration you need that vital role for the United Nations," Hewitt told the ITV television channel.
"What has to happen now is that the members of the Security Council must come together and agree on the definition of that central, that vital role, and pass that resolution," she added.
On last Tuesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush met in Belfast, Northern Ireland and agreed there would be a "vital role" for the United Nations in post-war Iraq.
However, when pressed on what precisely the UN role would be, Bush mentioned only humanitarian work, "suggesting" people to staff the interim authority and helping Iraq "progress".
In response, France, Germany, Russia and some other European countries have insisted the United Nations must have a central role in Iraq's reconstruction.
(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2003)
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