IRAQ: In a new setback to US policy on Iraq, President Bush admitted yesterday that he did not expect a new US-drafted resolution to be ready by the time of his address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
"No, I don't think so," Mr Bush replied when asked if the resolution would be agreed by then, as administration officials had hoped. "It could be," he said.
"We'll continue to work it, though." Several days ago the US circulated a draft resolution to the 15-member council that it calculated could offer UN "cover" to countries reluctant to send peacekeeping troops or provide funds to American-occupied Iraq .
Led by France, several countries are insisting on a greater role for the UN in administering Iraq, and a speedier transfer of power to Iraqis. The latest setback comes as the White House wrestles with other obstacles that are frustrating its efforts to pacify and rebuild Iraq.
Defence Department officials told the New York Times that the occupation's siege mentality combined with a failure to restore services has made ordinary Iraqis increasingly hostile to the Americans.
With a donor's conference in Madrid only weeks away, it is likely that the US will garner a mere $1 billion of its $10 billion target. The EU has offered only $250 million next year.
US Treasury Secretary, Mr John Snow, was unable to extract a firm commitment to help pay for rebuilding Iraq when he visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. This embarrassment is adding to resentment in the US Congress over the administration's request for an extra $87 billion in military and reconstruction assistance.
Speaking to reporters as he greeted Jordan's King Abdullah II at Camp David, Mr Bush said a new resolution at the UN "must promote an orderly transfer of sovereignty to what will be a freely elected government based upon a constitution." Later National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, suggested the resolution could be completed later next week.
Meanwhile, the US is bringing forward its timetable for the creation of an Iraqi army. Some 40,000 troops would be ready for service by next year according to Mr Walter Slocombe, the official in charge of US rebuilding operations in Iraq.
Mr Bush took the opportunity after his meeting with the Jordanian monarch to accuse Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, of failing as a leader and blamed him for forcing former prime minister Mr Mahmoud Abbas to resign. "At every turn he was undercut by the old order," said Mr Bush.
"Hopefully, at some point in time a leadership of the Palestinian Authority will emerge which will then commit itself 100 per cent to fighting off terror," he said.
"The first thing that must happen is an absolute condemnation and defeat of those forces who will kill innocent people in order to stop a peace process from going forward."
Two US soldiers were wounded yesterday when their convoy was attacked in a volatile area west of Baghdad, the American military said.
A spokesman said a Humvee vehicle had been damaged in the attack east of the town of Ramadi. He could not confirm whether it was the same incident as an attack reported earlier near the town of Khaldiya, which left two US vehicles ablaze.
In Falluja, thousands of angry Iraqis marched for the funeral of a teenager, who locals said was killed by accident by US troops, the latest incident to inflame tensions in the restive city.
Mourners said Sufyaan Daoud al-Kubaisi was killed when American soldiers shot at passers-by late on Wednesday.