GERMANY: The German Chancellor said yesterday UN sanctions against Iraq had become unnecessary and should be lifted as quickly as possible.
"We think that the sanctions have become superfluous," said Mr Gerhard Schröder, who spoke to the German television station ARD while on a visit to Vietnam.
The statement came on the eve of talks between Mr Schröder, who returned to Berlin yesterday, and the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, who arrived in the German capital last evening.
"We want to support a pragmatic process as much as possible, and insofar as it does not contradict our basic principles," said Mr Schröder, who consistently opposed the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Since the war Germany has pushed for the UN to be given a key role in rebuilding Iraq, while the US made it clear that major decisions will be taken by it and its war allies.
Speaking earlier yesterday, Mr Powell said the US still aimed to have international sanctions against Iraq lifted completely, although he had said that a suspension, rather than a complete end to the sanctions, could be acceptable. But the US wanted unanimity on the Security Council. Meanwhile, US diplomats said the United States was still working with its old draft Security Council resolution to lift sanctions, dashing earlier expectations that they would produce a new text. Legal experts from the 15 council members were due to meet later, but the diplomats said they would continue to discuss the draft submitted last Friday, rather than work on new proposals.
Diplomatic sources had suggested earlier yesterday that the US intended to produce a revised resolution to lift sanctions that would clarify and strengthen the UN role in forming a new government in Baghdad.
After hours of closed-door Security Council consultations on Wednesday, several nations, including Russia, France, Germany and China, which had opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq, were reported to have qualms about the resolution.
The measure would give the US and Britain broad powers to decide how to spend Iraq's oil wealth in rebuilding the war-torn country, with an international advisory board having few powers.
US Ambassador Mr John Negroponte said he expected to push the resolution to a vote next week, and would present a modified revision of the draft to Middle East experts of the other 14 council members at a meeting last night.
But the urgency of his remarks seemed to be tempered by Mr Powell's comment that the US would consider suspending rather than lifting sanctions, proposals Russia and France had made earlier.
A suspension of the embargoes would still give the US most of what it wants. But Russian officials have emphasised that UN resolutions call for a return of arms inspectors. The US so far has rejected any return of the inspectors. Without UN action to lift the sanctions, the US would be in a legal no man's land, with many companies unwilling to engage in trade and Iraq's oil exports open to lawsuits.
Diplomats said new language in the resolution was intended to give the UN a more significant political role in post-war Iraq.
"The important issues are how the political process is being organised," German Ambassador Mr Gunter Pleuger told reporters. - (AFP, Reuters)