UNITED NATIONS, Oct 2: Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations Munir Akram said on Thursday that Islamabad had clear requirements on the shape of a new draft US resolution on Iraq under discussion at the UN Security Council.

“Of course, we have to go through the political process back home,” Munir Akram told reporters on his way into a council meeting to discuss the draft, which was released late on Wednesday.

“We have some very clear premises which will be required to be fulfilled,” he said. But the ambassador shrugged off suggestions that the new version was substantially different from an initial text Washington put forward last month.

“We’ll have to study it very carefully to see where the radical changes are,” Mr Akram said.

Pakistan is one of several nations seen as a potential contributor to a multinational force in Iraq spelled out by the resolution. But President Pervez Musharraf has insisted he will only send soldiers if the force is under a UN umbrella.

Several nations proposed amendments to the first version, wanting to see a timetable for the handover of power to Iraqis and a clearly defined and expanded role for the United Nations in post-war Iraq.

The draft, obtained by AFP on Wednesday, fine-tunes the language but does not appear to be radically altered.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said it was out of his step with his own ideas.

“Obviously it’s not going in the direction I had recommended,” he told reporters. “We are studying it. We will have to determine whether it is a radical change from the past or what it is.”

Veto-wielding France has said it will not block the new resolution and diplomats say there is a strong desire to come to a consensus and avoid the bitter divisions that split the council before the war.

But differences remain and it was unclear if the new text offered enough changes to win full backing from sceptics on the council.

The United States wants a maximum of yes votes, rather than abstentions, from the full 15-member council, which will hold new talks on the Iraq situation on Thursday.—AFP