The United Nations Security Council will vote on a US-British draft resolution Thursday to extend the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq for up to12 months.

The council president, Russian Ambassador Andrey Denisov told reporters that the council has made a decision on renewing the UN mission for Iraq and would convene a formal meeting on the draft resolution.

But he added that he did not want to "prejudge" the result of Thursday's vote by the 15-nation council.

The draft would provide for a review of the mandate of the UN mission in 12 months or sooner if requested by the Iraqis.

The mission was established more than one year ago to help with Iraq's political and economic reconstruction. But all its international staff were withdrawn from the country in October after the UN office in Baghdad sustained two bomb attacks. The first attack, taking place on Aug. 19, killed 22 people, including mission chief Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Except sending small teams in for specific tasks, the United Nations now has no permanent presence in Iraq. Most of the mission is currently based in Jordan's capital, Amman.

A small UN team will go to Iraq this week to attend Iraq's national political conference, which is due to open on Aug.15.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said earlier that the team's security would rely on the US-led multinational force. He also reiterated that UN staff would not return to Iraq in large numbers before the country's security situation improves.

(CRI August 12, 2004)