Barbara Ferguson, Arab News Correspondent

WASHINGTON, 20 November 2003 — The United States will approach the UN for a fourth time in hopes of obtaining a new resolution to back its mandate in Iraq. In return, the US has revised its requirements for UN participation in Iraq.

A new UN resolution would help guarantee international recognition for the first postwar Iraqi government. It could also help bring much-needed UN peacekeeping troops and reconstruction aid to the war-ravaged country, both of which the Bush administration has been unable to obtain in three previous UN resolutions.

Washington also hopes a new resolution would mean the UN would participate in overseeing the selection of a new provisional Iraqi government.

“We want to pave the way for international acceptance for a new government and get a blessing for its legitimacy. We can’t afford to set up a government and let the international community later say it doesn’t recognize it,” a senior US official told journalists yesterday.

“In the end, we will need a new resolution to bless our exit strategy,” the administration official said anonymously. “We could go into Iraq without the United Nations, but it will be much harder to get out and leave behind a viable government if it doesn’t have some form of UN approval.”

But timing is essential. The US wants to approach the UN after the Iraqi Governing Council has announced its schedule for the transition to a provisional government.

The last UN resolution, passed in October, stipulated the council must present its timetable by Dec. 15. The council may now present it sooner, however, due to the US decision to speed up its timetable.

In Brussels Tuesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell seemed to confirm this plan.

Powell acknowledged he had discussed the need for a new UN resolution with Paul Bremer, the US Administrator of the coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, but said a resolution now would be “premature.”

“I think we will want to discuss what more is needed, in terms of the Untied Nations, in terms of its functions, in terms of its ability to support the political transition that will now be underway, and then you can work back from that to say: Is a Security Council resolution a good thing?” a senior US official told reporters traveling with President Bush to London yesterday.

While specifics of the resolution are unclear, the US and Britain have already begun to approach allies about UN participation.

The Washington Post says today that Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley traveled earlier this week to New York to brief UN Security General Kofi Annan and Security Council members on US plans.

UN officials told the paper they were receptive to a resolution endorsing the new US strategy, but were cautious about the “prospect” of committing their troops or resources.