Posted on 11/14/2003 10:50:46 AM PST by areafiftyone
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia, Nov 14 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday called the Bush administration's decision to speed up a handover of power to Iraqis a positive step that reflected his own position.
Annan had challenged the United States last month by outlining a rival blueprint that would transfer sovereignty to Iraqis within three months, similar to one the world body helped institute in Afghanistan.
In his first comments on the apparent U.S. change of position, Annan told a news conference, "I know that the U.S. authorities are looking at the possibility of accelerating the transfer to the Iraqis."
"The transfer of power to the Iraqis has always been my position," he said. "This is a positive development."
Annan spoke shortly before the opening of the annual Ibero-American summit of 21 nations at the end of his 10-day visit to Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
Paul Bremer, the top U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, is returning to Baghdad from Washington with new proposals after urgent meetings with top U.S. officials.
He is expected to speed up the writing of a constitution and elections so Iraqis can take power earlier than anticipated, perhaps by next summer. The U.S.-appointed governing council is required to give a schedule on this procedure to the U.N. Security Council on Dec. 15.
Annan said it was time for everyone to work together to stabilize Iraq but did not say when or if the United Nations, which withdrew its foreign staff from Baghdad, would participate in the political process in Iraq.
"I think we need an international community that comes together working with the Iraqi people and the neighbors of Iraq in the region to stabilize Iraq. It is essential that we do that because a chaotic Iraq will not be in anyone's interest," Annan said.
Many U.N. Security Council members, led by France, want a stronger U.N. role in the Iraqi transition process. France had asked for a quicker transfer of power to the Iraqis, a position Annan later adopted.
"Every day, it is spiraling in Iraq with American, British, Polish, Spanish, Italian deaths," France's Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, told French radio on Thursday. "How many deaths does it take to understand that it is essential to change the approach."
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