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By Irwin Arieff
Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/
Thu May 22, 2003

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations looked set to end 13 years of crippling sanctions on Iraq on Thursday after Europe's anti-war camp, keen to patch up a rift with Washington, said they would support the U.S.-backed measure.

France, Germany and Russia opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, forcing Washington to go to war without U.N. backing.

On Wednesday they stressed the importance of unity and said they would support the draft U.S. resolution on ending sanctions that is key to reconstructing Iraq's devastated economy.

Washington said Secretary of State Colin Powell would attend a meeting of G8 foreign ministers in Paris on Thursday that may demonstrate to what extent it can now work with anti-war opponents like France.

"We'll see how much they want to cooperate and move forward," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

France's vow to veto any U.N. Security Council resolution that would have authorized the U.S. invasion of Iraq infuriated the United States. But France has appeared keen to repair damaged ties.

"The war has taken place. Now it's time to restore the unity of the international community," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told France Inter radio on Thursday.

"Even if this text does not go as far as would like, we have decided to vote for this resolution," he told a joint news conference with his German and Russian counterparts on Wednesday night.

SWIFT APPROVAL

The three countries would have preferred a greater role for the United Nations in rebuilding Iraq and had wanted a timetable for setting up a legitimate domestic administration.

They viewed Washington's latest draft -- its third -- as an improvement because it allowed for a possible return of U.N. arms inspectors and included U.N. representatives on an international board monitoring Iraqi oil revenues.

With the so-called "non-nein-nyet" trio throwing its weight behind the U.S. draft, the measure was expected to win swift approval in a Security Council vote after 10 a.m. EDT.

The resolution, which would end U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, also gives the United States and Britain broad powers to run Iraq and sell its oil to fund reconstruction until a new government is set up.

Underscoring the struggle facing Baghdad's Anglo-American administration to stabilize postwar Iraq, gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades at a U.S. armored vehicle in the town of Falluja late on Wednesday.

U.S. troops, responding to the fire, killed two Iraqis.

The incident inflamed tensions in Falluja, where U.S. troops and local demonstrators clashed after the fall of Saddam Hussein last month and at least 15 Iraqis were killed.

Many Iraqis are impatient for the swift handover of power to a fully fledged Iraqi government, arguing that the power vacuum has delayed the rebuilding of infrastructure and contributed to the lawlessness that has terrorised residents.

On Wednesday the United States delayed steps toward choosing an interim Iraqi government, pushing back at least until mid-July a national conference to create a U.S.-supervised transitional authority.

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