Bush holds line on Iraq

Mr. Annan said the war had brought to the UN to a "fork in the road ... no less decisive" than in 1945 when the UN was founded after World War II. Acknowledging the new kind of challenge presented by new terrorist threats, Mr. Annan said the UN must either find new ways to act collectively against security threats, or resign itself to unilateral action by powers that perceive an imminent threat.

In that sense, Annan was acknowledging the particular role of the US as the world's only superpower, which as such is also a particular target of global terrorism.

Bush's speech gave few hints as to how much political control the US might be willing to give up to the UN in Iraq.

With the US still mulling key questions for a resolution, such as how much of a timetable for Iraqi sovereignty to include and how specific to be on tasks the UN could take over in the political realm, a vote is seen to be set for the end of the week at the earliest.

"On the question of whether it's clear what shape the resolution is taking, the answer is simply no," says one UN official in the secretarygeneral's office.

Any world leaders looking for an overriding "conciliatory tone" in the speech were probably disappointed, the official says. But on the other hand, Bush's plans to stay two days in New York to meet with leaders is seen as an important gesture - as is Bush's willingness to talk about "specifics" including a UN role in helping Iraqis write a constitution, and later with elections.

Bush said the UN would be vital to Iraq in writing a new constitution, training civil servants, and organizing successful elections.

"The secretary-general wants specificity on the concrete authority the UN will have to go in and really deliver on set tasks," the official says. "As the president has noted, we have experience and expertise in a number of crucial areas, from running a country after conflict to elections and human rights."

Annan has scheduled a lunch with the foreign ministers of the Security Council's five permanent members Thursday, in hopes of narrowing differences.

The idea of some sort of two-tiered approach to realizing Iraqi sovereignty - with a symbolic hand-over of national affairs to the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council in the short -term, and a permanent sovereign government taking the reins after elections - is gaining ground among some Security Council countries.

Some experts see that idea as a way to get the French and other onetime deriders of the Council more squarely behind it. But the Bush administration has given no signs of supporting the idea. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice rejected the idea as potentially disastrous, and Bush said a transfer of sovereignty would be "neither hurried nor delayed."

In the meantime, prospects for getting more foreign troops into Iraq, in part to relieve US soldiers on longer duty there than anticipated, have seemed to dim recently. Turkey and Pakistan - both Muslim countries the US has been keen to see send troops - have recently added conditions beyond approval of a UN resolution to sending in security forces.

But India has remained positive about taking part once a resolution is passed, and as one UN diplomat notes, India's involvement is likely to trigger others.

In all, the speech "was vintage Bush, in that he made a strong case for his decision [on Iraq] and showed no remorse for US actions," says James Lindsay, a foreign-policy expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. The president "stuck to his principles but adjusted the packaging," Lindsay says - a tack that is likely to fall flat with foreigners who "want to see the US to eat crow over Iraq" but play well with Bush's Republican base and among war-supporting independents.

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