US seeks global aid for Iraq

With the US-led transition in Iraq facing growing troubles on the ground, the United States is pressing for more international help on several key fronts.

Taken together, the moves signal America's refocus on an international approach to an era-defining reconstruction project. Among the recent developments:

• The US is seeking the United Nations' return to Iraq, a year after the rancorous battle that left the US at odds with much of the world. Now, the US wants the UN to help resolve a flaring debate in the country over how the provisional government will be selected. On Monday, the UN signaled willingness to send experts to Baghdad to evaluate the climate for elections, which Iraq's Shiite majority is demanding.

• The White House is sending envoy James Baker to the Gulf to continue his global pursuit of relief for Iraq's crushing international debt.

• With the White House considering an about-face in its ban on antiwar countries participating in Iraq's big reconstruction contracts, talk is growing of NATO playing a significant peacekeeping role in Iraq once the US occupation ends.

While some suspicion of US motives remains, global leaders beginning with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan agree that success in Iraq is in the international community's interest.

"The stability of Iraq should be everyone's business," Mr. Annan said after meetings Monday in New York with Iraqi leaders and occupation officials, including Iraq's American governor, Paul Bremer. "We have an opportunity to work together to try and move forward in a process that the [UN Security] Council and all of us have believed in."

Although Annan stopped short of an outright "yes" to a US and Iraqi request that the UN send elections experts to Iraq to study the feasibility of elections, an affirmative decision is not expected to tarry, given the urgency on the ground.

In Baghdad on Monday, an estimated 100,000 Shiites took to the streets in a peaceful demonstration of support for direct elections. They object to the complex provincial caucus system the US has approved.

Iraq's Shiites largely back the position of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the influential Muslim leader who continues to hold out for direct elections. Occupation authorities, and indeed a majority of Iraq's US-named Governing Council, argue that the few months remaining until a planned June 30 turnover do not allow for organizing elections.

Mr. Sistani originally interpreted signals from Secretary-General Annan that elections could not be organized on such short notice as a mere response to American pressure. But more recently, the revered cleric has suggested he would listen to a UN recommendation on the issue - leading to intense occupation pressure on Annan to agree to dispatch a technical team.

The stalemate over the means of selecting a new government is not the only issue pressuring the US to seek more international help in Iraq. The US continues to look for ways to draw down its force levels in Iraq once a new government takes charge, and that is prompting warmer relations with key countries that opposed the war - for example, France and Germany.

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