Despite United Nations officials' doubts about operating in Iraq under deteriorating security conditions, US President Mr George Bush seems intent on handing over responsibility to the UN for a post-June 30th government and elections in January 2005, writes Conor O'Clery, North America Editor, in New York
This became clear at a prime-time White House press conference at which Mr Bush vowed to stay the course in Iraq and keep to the June 30th deadline for handing over sovereignty.
He conceded that this could require extra troops, and yesterday the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, signed orders keeping 20,000 troops in Iraq for an extra 90 days. This suspends part of a massive rotation.
Mr Bush said the US was working closely with UN envoy Mr Lakhdar Brahimi and the Iraqis "to determine the exact form of the government that will receive sovereignty on June 30th". The UN elections assistance team, headed by Ms Carina Pirelli, "is in Iraq developing plans for next January's election".
However, Mr Brahimi said yesterday that while he was confident a caretaker government could take over on June 30th, the security situation must improve considerably before elections could take place in January.
The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, also warned on Tuesday that the current violence would prevent a large-scale return of UN staff to Iraq.
"For the foreseeable future, insecurity is going to be a major constraint for us," Mr Annan said. "And so I cannot say right now that I am going to be sending in a large UN team."
Asked who would assume sovereignty in Iraq on June 30th, Mr Bush replied: "We'll find that out soon. That's what Mr Brahimi is doing. He's figuring out the nature of the entity we'll be handing sovereignty over." The US administrator in Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, is due to leave on June 30th and be replaced by the current US ambassador to the UN, Mr John Negroponte, who will head up the first US embassy in Iraq for over a decade.
Mr Bush also indicated that the US would return to the UN to seek endorsement of a greater international security role to assist US-led forces.
"I'd like to get another UN Security Council resolution out that will help other nations to participate." He said Italian, Polish and British leaders were showing resolution in the face of attack.
Mr Bush called the news conference - only the third of his term - at a pivotal moment in the Iraq war and in his presidency. The other two prime-time appearances were after 9/11 and before the Iraq war, both at a time when the US was much less polarised.
Approval for Mr Bush's handling of Iraq has fallen to below 50 per cent. In the past two weeks the death toll of US servicemen rose to 86 with 561 wounded, the highest casualty rate since May.
Mr Bush seemed intent on meeting growing concerns in the US that Iraq is spinning out of control. He rejected suggestions that it was becoming another Vietnam, as the analogy "sends the wrong message to our troops and sends the wrong message to the enemy". He depicted the conflict as one between good and evil, in which "the enemies of the civilised world were testing the will of the civilised world".
America was "changing the world", he said, reminding viewers that "freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man and woman" and as the greatest power on earth, America had a duty to help spread freedom.
The press conference got a mixed response, particularly for Mr Bush's refusal, despite three opportunities, to apologise for any government lapses before 9/11.
He also declined to admit any mistakes in his Iraq policies, which have been criticised in particular for inadequate post-war planning and misleading statements over illegal weapons.
"I'm sure something will pop into my head here," he said, but nothing did. "I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes," he said. "I'm confident I have." But "maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one."
Democratic presidential candidate Mr John Kerry said the President had failed to explain how he would stabilise Iraq. "We need to set a new course in Iraq, we need to internationalise the effort and put an end to the American occupation," he said.
"We need to open up the reconstruction of Iraq to other countries. We need a real transfer of political power to the UN."
The New York Times said the President's answers were "distressingly rambling and unfocused" and the handing of responsibility to the UN must have come as a surprise to UN officials who had not agreed to accept the responsibility, and did not believe they had been given the authority to make such decisions.
USA Today, the largest-circulation US newspaper, said that instead of facing up to what had gone wrong with US plans to create a free and democratic Iraq, the Bush administration was more focused on saving face.
"Long on resolve but short on details," said Washington Post analyst Dan Balz, while a Wall Street editorial analysis concluded that the press conference was Mr Bush's "most ringing defence to date of his decision to invade Iraq nearly 13 months ago".
Mr Bush told a reporter who asked him if he believed he acted correctly in Iraq even if it cost him his job that "I don't intend to lose my job". He was "going to tell the American people I have a plan to win the war on terror", he said. "Look, nobody likes to see dead people on their television screens. I don't. It's a tough time for the American people to see that. It's gut-wrenching."