US, Britain present UN with Iraq blueprint

AMERICA and Britain presented a new UN resolution last night that would transfer "governing authority" in Iraq to a sovereign interim government by June 30 and authorise a multinational force to maintain peace.

It did not spell out whether the Iraqis could ask the US-led force to leave.

The wide-ranging resolution provides a blueprint for the end of US and British occupation and a timetable for Iraq's political transition to democratic government, with elections to a Transitional National Assembly to be held by January 31, 2005.