US wins backing for Iraq resolution

The United States won unexpected support for its new Iraq resolution and was confident of winning approval in a vote Washington hopes will attract troops and money to stabilise the war-battered country and put it on the road to independence.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that Germany, France and Russia - Europe’s leading opponents to the US-led war in Iraq – will vote in favour of the UN resolution on Iraq.

The decision was made during a 45-minute conference call with Schroeder, French President Jacques Chirac and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Schroeder said.

“We agreed that the resolution is really an important step in the right direction,” he said.

US officials had said they expected Russia to vote ”yes” today, and probably Germany as well, and they were not ruling out approval by France, the most outspoken critic of Washington’s Iraq policies. China also indicated it might support for the resolution.

The vote had been delayed so the leaders of Russia, France and Germany could discuss on Thursday morning whether to back the resolution following Washington’s refusal to support their key demand that it include a timetable to transfer power to Iraqis.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell launched a final diplomatic offensive to win broad support for the resolution, talking by telephone to the presidents of Pakistan and Angola, the foreign ministers of China, Russia and Britain and twice to Dominique de Villepin of France.

Council diplomats said the United States agreed to delay the vote after Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov spoke again last night.

“A great deal of progress has been made over the last 24 hours, and especially today,” Powell told reporters in Washington. “I think that we will have a successful vote on the resolution.”

While the UN Security Council remains divided on how fast to transfer power to Iraqis and who should oversee Iraq’s political transition from a dictatorship to a democracy, its 15 members appear to be willing to compromise to send a more united message on the importance of returning an independent Iraq to the family of nations.