Today: April 19, 2004 at 10:21:17 PDT
BOLOGNA, Italy (AP) -
Italy's foreign minister backed a United Nations proposal to transfer sovereignty to a caretaker government in Iraq, and said Monday he would ask Washington to give the United Nations "real powers" in the country.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini met with the lead U.N. envoy for Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, in Bologna on Monday. He said he would raise his support for the plan during meetings in Washington starting Tuesday.
"I believe this idea is in the direction that the Italian government supports and requires," Frattini said.
Last week, Brahimi proposed that the U.S.-appointed Governing Council in Iraq stop work on June 30, and that the United States surrender sovereignty to a caretaker government of a prime minister, a president and two vice presidents. It would oversee the country until elections on Jan. 31, 2005.
The caretaker government would be chosen by the United Nations, the current Governing Council, the coalition and a select group of Iraqi judges.
Frattini said that while in the United States, he would say "with friendship to the U.S. that when on June 30 the coalition dissolves we must already be ready with the individuation of a new Iraqi government and with the United Nations present with real powers."
He is to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and a few senators.
Brahimi was in Bologna to deliver a speech and to meet with European Union Commission President Romano Prodi, who lives in the city. He was to meet later Monday with Premier Silvio Berlusconi in Rome.
Prodi said he had assured Brahimi of the EU's support for a strong role for the United Nations in running the country.
On Sunday, Brahimi had met with the French and German foreign ministers, Michel Barnier and Joschka Fischer, in Paris.
Frattini said last week that Italy was working for a new U.N. resolution giving explicit legitimacy to a post-June 30 Iraqi government.
Italy was a strong supporter of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has deployed about 2,700 troops to help with reconstruction, the third-largest contingent after the United States and Britain.
Brahimi's plan for the Iraqi transition has received preliminary support from the United States and Britain. He is due to report on it to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, then return to Baghdad for more talks.
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