US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Thursday that the US was talking with other Security Council members on a new resolution to encourage more UN member states to participate in the rebuilding of Iraq.

"We're looking forward to language that might call on others to do more," Powell told reporters after meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday's bombing of the UN office in Baghdad.

"Perhaps additional language and a new resolution might encourage others," Powell noted, adding that the discussions currently underway might touch "issues with respect to the role the UN might play" in Iraq.

But Powell hinted that the United States would not hand over the control of security in Iraq. "You have to have control of a large military organization. That's what US leadership brings to the coalition," he said.

He said that so far 30 countries have agreed to contribute troops to the force under the command of the occupying coalition and 14 more were talking with Washington over their involvement.

"The issue of conceding authority is not an issue we discussed," he stressed.

But earlier this month, a number of countries, notably France and India, made it clear that they would not dispatch troops to join the multinational force there without being mandated by the Security Council.

Annan told reporters that among their topics were security of UN personnel, the situation in the West African nation of Liberia and the renewed tension in the Middle East.

Annan reaffirmed that the United Nations was playing an independent role in Iraq although the slain UN special envoy for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, had cooperated closely with the occupying coalition.

Powell came to the UN headquarters in New York two days after a truck bomb exploded right outside the UN office in Baghdad, killing at least 20 people, including the UN top envoy Vieira de Mello, and injuring more than 100 others.

The attack highlighted the vulnerability of UN and international aid workers working in conflict areas like post-war Iraq.
 
(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2003)