UN has key role to play in Iraq transition - Blair

Tony Blair has said that the UN should play a key role in mediating Iraq’s transition to sovereignty and curtailing the spiralling violence that has hindered the US-led occupation.

“The circumstances will require us at some point in the near future to have a new UN Security Council resolution that will allow us to point (the) way toward political transition in Iraq,” said the UK Prime Minister, who was to meet President George W Bush on today to discuss the Iraq crisis.

Mr Blair made the comments during a joint news conference with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the New York residence of the British ambassador to the UN, Emyr Jones Parry.

Mr Annan said he and Mr Blair discussed the recommendations by his special adviser, Lakhdar Brahimi, for a caretaker government to take power from the US-led coalition on June 30 and lead Iraq until elections in January.

“It has not been easy,” Mr Annan said, “but we are trying to do whatever we can to help.”

Mr Annan said Mr Brahimi has been trying “to encourage the Iraqis to come to some consensus on how to form a transitional government, and I think Mr Brahimi’s effort is to help them move in that direction”.

Mr Brahimi left Iraq yesterday and is expected to return to New York in late April to brief Mr Annan and the UN Security Council before returning to Iraq to finalise his recommendations on a transitional government.

He went to Iraq at the request of the coalition and the 25-member US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council to try to come up with a plan acceptable to a wide range of Iraqis.

In recent days, Iraq has seen the heaviest fighting since Baghdad fell to US troops a year ago, with coalition forces fighting Sunni and Shiite Muslim militants.

The violence “is obviously a difficult issue, particularly with security at the moment”, Mr Blair said.

“But the determination to get there remains undimmed,” he said. “We have to stand firm.”

Britain has around 8,000 troops in Iraq, one of several allies backing up the US force of more than 135,000.