"In light of some of the issues, there are some changes the co-sponsors are willing to consider," Negroponte said

UNITED NATIONS, May 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In a yet another sign of the international community’s unwillingness to give the Anglo-American "occupying power" a free hand in running Iraq, the U.N. Security Council decided late Tuesday, May 20, to postpone a voting on a U.S.-brokered draft resolution on lifting international sanctions imposed on Iraq pending further changes.

With Washington and London offering new concessions to opponents of the draft, a vote was put off until at least Thursday, May 22, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"In light of some of the issues, there are some changes the co-sponsors are willing to consider," U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte admitted.

He rejected a request to set a 12-month limit to the occupation of Iraq by U.S. and British forces, with any extension requiring U.N. Security Council approval -- in effect giving a veto to war opponents France and Russia.

"We would not agree to that kind of a limitation," Negroponte said.

During Tuesday's four-hour debate, members raised numerous questions and made numerous demands for changes to the 15-page text, BBC News Online quoted diplomats as saying.

Human Rights Watch has said the draft fails to protect human rights inside Iraq and  the international financier, George Soros, says it gives excessive powers to the occupying powers.

The draft submitted on Tuesday was already a revised version of America's original text, which prompted objections by other powers last week.

If adopted, the draft would immediately lift the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in August 1990 and would place Iraq's oil revenues into a development fund to be spent at the direction of the U.S.-led occupying forces.

Clarifications Needed

Neither Negroponte nor British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock would say what further concessions would be offered to get the proposal approved, but Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov pointed to three questions on which his government wanted clarification.

"We also believe that we have to have an understanding of how we close the disarmament files," said Lavrov

"We think the role of the Security Council in overseeing the reconstruction of Iraq should be clear," he said.

Russia also wanted clear "criteria for phasing out some of the measures which are proposed as temporary measures" before a legitimate, internationally recognized government is established in Iraq, added the Lavrov.

"We also believe that we have to have an understanding of how we close the disarmament files," said the Russian diplomat.

He was referring to Russia's demand that the sanctions could not lifted until U.N. inspectors certified Iraq free of weapons of mass destruction, the allegation upon which the United States and Britain waged the war on Iraq without the U.N. authorization.

Phone Diplomacy

Earlier, in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell lobbied for the resolution in phone calls to other foreign ministers and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Washington would like to see the resolution voted on and approved quickly so the issue does not complicate a Group of Eight foreign ministers meeting that Powell will attend in Paris beginning Thursday, officials said.

Boucher said Powell stressed the changes the United States had made to the resolution to take their concerns into account.

"The text that we presented, in many ways, tries to address a number of the issues that we have heard raised by other governments," he said.

"We think that this is a fair and objective text that now addresses many of those issues."

Russia, France and China, veto-wielding permanent members of the 15-seat Security Council, had all expressed unease about handing control of Iraq and its oil revenues to Washington and London, and urged a beefed-up U.N. role in the country.

France said before the new draft was released that it would back the resolution to lift sanctions if it included more explicit references to the role of the United Nations.

In a veiled threat to Paris, Washington's ambassador to France said trade relations between the two countries would be threatened by a renewed dispute on the U.N. Security Council.

Paris and Washington's differences over the Iraq war were unlikely "to lead to massive or lasting boycotts, as long as we can find a solution to the question of U.N. sanctions on Iraq," Howard H. Leach told the French daily newspaper Le Figaro.

In a blow for council members hoping Anglo-American forces will make a swift exit from Iraq, the top British official in Baghdad John Sawers said Tuesday that the Washington and London do not intend to hand power to an Iraqi government until elections have been held, which he expected to take between one and two years.

A U.S.-sanctioned leadership council of seven Iraqi political groups has been holding talks with the U.S.-led administration in postwar Iraq, with the aim of setting up a national congress that would pave the way for an interim authority.

A U.S. official said the congress would probably take place next month, but the Anglo-American forces have angered the Iraqi factions by warning them not to expect direct executive power in what will be styled as an authority rather than a government.

Baathist Leader Arrested

Meanwhile, the U.S. Central Command said Ugla Abid Saqir Al-Kubaysi, a Baath Party regional leader, is now in its custody.

He was number 50 on the list of 55 most-wanted  Iraqi leaders.

Saddam and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, who head the list, remain at large and U.S. officials have said they do not know if they are dead or alive.

Underlining the massive task of reconstruction facing the much-criticized U.S. administration in Iraq, the WHO warned the country was on the brink of a health catastrophe.

David Nabarro, executive director of the World Health Organization's sustainable development unit, said the Iraqi health system was functioning at only one-fifth of its capacity, while patchy electricity supplies were increasing the risk of water contamination and disease.

"It's a catastrophe of the non-functioning of a state, rather than the humanitarian crisis that we were preparing for beforehand," he said.