Four EU nations seek central UN role in Iraq

BRITAIN will join three other EU nations on the Security Council to seek a central role from the UN in post-war Iraq, French President Jacques Chirac said last night.

Chirac said a joint statement was being hammered out by France, Britain, Germany and Spain European Union States currently on the Security Council would call for a central role for the UN in post-war Iraq.

"The UN is the only body which has the competence and legitimacy to end the crisis," Chirac said at the EU summit in Athens. He said the initiative was an attempt to outline principles for the reconstruction and stabilisation of Iraq. "All this should be done ... with a central role for the United Nations. We are all agreed on that," he told a news conference. He added, however, that US and British forces in Iraq were responsible for ensuring immediate security and law and order in the country.