BEIJING, Oct 12: China wants the United Nations to pass a new resolution on Iraq to give the world body a bigger role in rebuilding that country, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday.

In a telephone conversation ahead of a meeting between US President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao at a regional forum in Bangkok, Li and Powell discussed Iraq and the North Korean nuclear issue, the official Xinhua news agency said.

“It is necessary for the United Nations to pass a new resolution (on Iraq) and help the country to restore sovereignty as early as possible,” Xinhua quoted Li as saying.

“The resolution should make the United Nations have a bigger role in the Iraq issue. China expects relevant parties to narrow their differences and reach consensus soon,” Li said.

Powell said last week he would be contacting several foreign ministers over the weekend to muster support for a new UN resolution on post-war arrangements in Iraq.

The United States wants other governments to contribute more troops and money to help run and rebuild Iraq, but is resisting calls by some nations to shift authority to the United Nations or to Iraqi politicians more quickly.

On North Korea, Li and Powell said they hoped upcoming talks including Russia, South Korea and Japan would not be derailed, Xinhua said without elaborating.

China has said it wants another round of six-party talks to take place by the end of the year to try to resolve a dispute over North Korea’s nuclear programme.

The United States and other countries are urging North Korea to abandon the programme, but the communist country says it wants a formal pledge from Washington it will not be attacked.

US lawmakers: President Bush came under renewed fire on Sunday from lawmakers who demanded a clearer plan for securing Iraq and winning international support for rebuilding the country.

“We need to go to the United Nations more humbly, more directly, more honestly, solicit help in a way that brings the United Nations into this effort, or you are going to continue to see bomb after bomb after bomb,” Senator John Kerry told ABC television.

Senator Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat from New Jersey, said on CNN that the car bombing was “a continuation of the violence that we’ve seen for now ever since the combat was supposed to be over.”

“The other day we lost three American soldiers. Try to tell those families that we’re making progress there. They’re bewildered by what they see happening. And now, they wonder whether or not we’re going to take money from American needs and put it into Iraq when they’re sitting on 200 billion dollars worth of liquid gold,” he said.—Reuters/AFP