July 20, 2003	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 19, 1424

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UNITED NATIONS, July 19: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, on Friday called for a broader role for the United Nations in Iraq and asked the United States and Britain to quickly establish order in the country and hand over the power to the elected representatives of the people.

In the first ever report sent to the UN Security Council on Iraq since the US-led coalition deposed Saddam Hussein, Mr Annan said that the Iraqis did not want democracy imposed on them by outsiders and rated lawlessness as their primary concern.

He said Iraqis were lining up to tell his special representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello, that creating an interim government quickly was their “central concern.”

“It is important that Iraqis are able to see a clear timetable leading to the full restoration of sovereignty,” Mr Annan said. “There is a pressing need to set out a clear and specific sequence of events leading to the end of military occupation.”

Iraqis speaking to UN officials “expressed deep concern about the precarious, some believed deteriorating, security situation, particularly in Baghdad,” Mr Annan said.

Continued looting and what appeared to be the emergence of organized sabotage “pose a significant threat to the restoration of basic services. In addition, the large illegal trade in oil and fuel directly affects the access of Iraqis to these vital supplies, as well as their perception of progress in the current environment,” Mr Annan said.

He laid out a comprehensive list of tasks the United Nations intended to pursue in Iraq, ranging from economic reconstruction and delivering humanitarian aid to encouraging the development of an Iraqi press and planning for elections.

Mr Annan prepared the report as the US death toll in Iraq surpassed that of the 1991 Gulf War and Washington was considering additional UN involvement to try to persuade nations to contribute troops or help with finances.

NEW RESOLUTION: Talking to reporters at the UN headquarters, Mr Annan said he had discussed with US Secretary of State Colin Powell during his visit to Washington earlier this week the possibility of another Security Council resolution giving a UN flag to the future stabilization activities in Iraq.

“Yes, indeed, Secretary Powell and I discussed it, and it also came up in my discussion with US Senator (Bill) Frist and other Senators on the Hill, who also felt the operation needs to be internationalized, and other governments brought in,” he said in reply to a question.

Mr Annan said Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also raised with him in a telephone conversation on Friday “the need, as he saw it, to broaden the UN’s mandate and internationalize the operations.