The United States and Britain this evening urged the United Nations to resume its oil for food programme in Iraq, but made little progress on defining the UN's post-war role in the country.
President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued the joint call after a war summit at the presidential retreat at Camp David in the Maryland hills, taking place as the war to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein looked set to drag on longer than expected.
"Today, the prime minister and I ... urge the United Nations to immediately resume the oil for food program," Mr Bush said. "This is urgent," added Mr Blair, saying he would discuss the programme with UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan during talks later today in New York.
The Oil for Food program was set up in December 1996 to permit Iraq to sell a limited amount of oil to buy food and medicines for citizens badly hit by UN sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
But it was suspended last week, and has been at the centre of a political row, as critics, including Russia, argue that the United States and Britain must be responsible for feeding Iraqi civilians, after taking the decision to invade Iraq.
Bush and Blair also discussed the future role of the United Nations in Iraq, if their effort to unseat Saddam Hussein succeeds.
Britain has been pushing for a significant UN administrative role in Iraq, hoping its presence will lend international legitimacy to any post-Saddam administration.
The United States, which has been making its own plans for post-war Iraq, says it will allow UN coordination in post-war Iraq, but will not permit the world body to control an interim government.
Mr Blair denied the United States and Britain were split on the issue. "There is simply no difference at all there but there are a huge amount of details as to exactly how that is to be implemented," he said.
"There's no doubt at all that the United Nations has got to be closely involved in this process. That's not just right, it's in everyone's interest that it happens," he said at the press conference.
AFP