The United States, Britain and Spain have submitted a new draft resolution on Iraq to the United Nations that offers a number of concessions.
The concessions include an enhanced UN role in establishing a new Iraqi government. However, the new draft would retain broad US and British control over Iraq's oil and the right to run the country until an internationally recognised government was in place.
None of the major powers have threatened a veto and the resolution is widely expected to be adopted.
The draft, which US Ambassador Mr John Negroponte said he wanted to bring to a vote by the end of the week, would phase out the oil-for-food humanitarian programme over six months rather than four to address concerns that Iraqis might suffer if the programme was ended too quickly.Two-thirds of Iraqis depend on the programme for their food supplies.
The new text also would open the door to a possible return of UN arms inspectors, though not immediately. US officials rejected a callfrom the UN's nuclear watchdog for its inspectors to return to Iraqquickly, though the new draft "underlines the intention of thecouncil to revisit the mandates" of the UN disarmament agency,UNMOVIC, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Those two bodies carried out seven weeks of arms inspections inIraq until staff were evacuated on March 17th, three days before thewar began.
IAEA chief Mr Mohamed El-Baradei urged Washington to allowhis inspectors back into Iraq, warning of a safety risk at nuclearsites looted since the fall of Saddam. The agency had said it was concerned that material suitable for use in "dirty" bombs, which spread atomic radiation, could be stolen from nuclear sites in Iraq.
Responding to worries from France and Spain about possible oil spills off their long Atlantic coastlines, the draft also would allow lawsuits against the interim Iraqi administration for environmental disasters.
Mr Negroponte said Washington's third and latest draft "makes a strong effort to accommodate and address the comments and concerns that have been raised by many of the delegations."
The draft would end nearly 13 years of UN sanctions, imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of oil-rich Kuwait. It would authorise the United States and Britain, as the occupying powers in Iraq, to use oil revenues to rebuild the nation and gradually shut down the oil-for-food programme.
It will also allow the US and Britain to decide how much oil Iraq will sell, how it will be priced, and which companies will buy it.