NEW YORK, March 29: US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Saturday said the United Nations was needed to give a US-British occupation of Iraq “international legitimacy” but noted that the world body had indicated it did not want to govern the country.

“The United Nations has made it clear, through the secretary general, they do not want to become the new governing authority of Iraq,” Powell told The New York Times in an interview.

“But they have a role to play in many different ways,” he said.

Mr Powell said the United Nations would serve as a “chapeau” — using the French word for “hat,” in a bow to the country which stridently opposed the war — to endorse Iraq’s postwar operations.

The world body would also receive funds from aid groups to finance reconstruction, he said.

But the military would have to remain in control until the situation in Iraq stabilizes, Mr Powell said.

“We’re the ones who are doing the fighting and the liberating with our friends in the coalition,” he said.

“We believe we have an important role to play and to some extent drive this process until such time as there is an Iraqi government that is functioning and running.”

But Mr Powell said the United States would seek a major role for the United Nations, move more “aggressively” to push Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and reach out to “friends with whom we may have been having some difficulty.”

“Once we have been successful and we have prevailed, and people realize that we have come to provide a better life for the people of Iraq,” Powell said, “I think you can turn this rather quickly.”

The secretary of state rejected comparisons between President George Bush’s handling of Iraq and how he might deal with Iran or North Korea — the other two members of Bush’s “axis of evil.”

War with Iraq “doesn’t mean we’re going to a war footing as soon as Iraq is dealt with,” he said.

“The president has available to him lots of tools, and the tool you use is not always a hammer,” Powell said.

He also denied that the Bush administration had expected less military resistance to US and British forces.

“We all hoped for the best, but you plan for not the best,” he said. “War is not a game. And it’s not a slogan. These are young men and women who are being sent to their ... to their fate.”

“I think that they will bring decisive force to bear,” he said. “But what I don’t want to do is start commenting on the ups and downs, the ins and outs of the daily battle.” —AFP