UN Iraqi resolution faces Security Council battle

THE Security Council is unlikely to approve a resolution sending more troops to Iraq unless the US shares decision-making and responsibility, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned yesterday.

He spoke after holding talks with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Mr Annan said that if Washington was not ready to give up exclusive control of a proposed multinational force, “I think it is going to be very difficult to get a second resolution that will satisfy everybody.”

The Security Council remains bitterly divided over the Bush administration’s decision to go to war without UN approval, and Washington’s campaign to get more countries to send troops under a new UN mandate faces an uphill battle.