MOSCOW, Aug 7: Russia repeated its calls for a new UN Security Council resolution on Iraq Thursday, saying such a step would legitimize the US-installed temporary government there.

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said in an official statement that Russia — which has veto power within the UN council — “would be able to recognize the temporary leadership of Iraq” if a new resolution were drafted.

His comments came as Russia and the United States wrapped up two days of high-level consultations on the Middle East, which included Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But top US Middle East diplomat William Burns, who flew into Moscow ahead of a key regional tour, sidestepped the issue of a new resolution at a press conference Thursday at the end of his visit.

“We are continuing to take a careful look at how we can work together in the Security Council to build on” previous UN resolutions on Iraq, said Burns, an assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov, who appeared alongside Burns, said: “We have a lot of room for mutual understanding on these issues.”

“We exchanged concrete proposals on this count and we have agreed to continue consulations,” Fedotov said.

Ivanov’s statement said the new UN resolution must also set “precise dates for agreeing a new constitution and holding democratic elections” in Iraq.

The statement hinted that Russia, which opposed the US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein, could be edging toward approval of Washington’s postwar efforts in the country.

A centerpiece of these efforts is the 25-member interim Governing Council, which was appointed on July 13 and was hailed as the country’s first step towards democracy.

But after it took two weeks to appoint its first president and after three weeks with no cabinet, the body has often given the impression of straining to reach a compromise among the country’s fractious Kurdish, Christian, Turkmen, Sunni and Shiite Muslim constituencies.

“We both have an interest... in supporting the governing council which is a very important step forward in trying to build on the very political process that has begun,” Burns said in Moscow.

“The establishment of an interim council in Iraq is an important step forward,” Fedotov said. “The settlement of the situation in Iraq and the creation of a genuine sovereign government in Iraq will stable the sit in the entire region.”

Burns’s comments also indicated that the two sides were discussing the role Russia and its companies would play in the lucrative reconstruction of the war-battered country.

“We had an opportunity to talk about the reconstruction in Iraq, a subject in which Russia and Russian companies have a very keen interest and we look forward to continuing those conversations in the future,” Burns said.

Russian companies had signed billions of dollars worth of contracts with Saddam’s government and Kremlin has consistently called for those contracts to be honored.

Iraq also owes Russia an estimated eight billion dollars of Soviet-era debt.

Moscow opposed the Iraqi campaign from the start and regarded Saddam Hussein as a guarantor of Russia’s massive oil investments in Iraq even though relations with him had long turned frosty. —AFP