Powell says UN has political and reconstruction role

The United Nations has both a political and a reconstruction role in post-war Iraq, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday in Baghdad, during his first trip to the country following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Iraq is "getting back to normal", Powell told reporters on Sunday evening, chiding the media for not reporting enough about the good things that are going on in the country of 29 million people. “I’d say people are hard at work rebuilding a nation, rebuilding a society,” he said after a whirlwind series of meetings with various officials throughout the day. “There’s a gratitude to the United States for freeing Iraq and liberating Iraq,” he added. The Iraq visit came a day after Powell was in Geneva trying to narrow differences between the United States and four other permanent members of the UN Security Council - Britain, China, France and Russia - on a draft UN resolution to bring more international help and troops to Iraq. However, the Geneva talks, at which UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was also present, ended with no conclusion. “Discussions today were not intended, I repeat not intended, to devise specific solutions,” Annan said following the, meeting. “They will contribute to building a consensus towards the future of Iraq, including the definition of a UN role.” During the closed-door meeting, the Secretary-General said he “conveyed the concerns of the humanitarian community that it requires both adequate military deployment and a clear political horizon for the transfer of authority to Iraqi institutions.” Answering a question from reporters on the UN's role in transferring sovereignty to Iraq, Annan said: “It is the population and people of Iraq who should assume authority, but the United Nations is ready to work with them and help them.” Governments and aid agencies are calling for the UN to have a larger political role in Iraq in order to give greater legitimacy to reconstruction and so that the international body can continue crucial humanitarian work. The United States and France do not agree on how quickly Iraq governance should be turned over to the Iraqi people, a sticking point in the US-sponsored resolution, Powell told reporters in Baghdad. “Everybody wants us to go fast,” Powell said. “But the worst thing that could happen is for us to push too fast and to fail.” The visiting US Secretary of state met US military officials, members of Iraq's recently appointed interim government, the US-led administration and even the Baghdad City Council. He is the highest ranking US diplomatic official to visit Iraq to date, following close on the heels of US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Powell also paid tribute to UN Special Envoy to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in a truck bomb attack on 19 August along with more than 22 other people, mostly UN workers. More than 80 people were injured. No one has claimed responsibility or has been arrested in connection with the attack.