UN: The Following are key points of the US-British-drafted UN Security Council resolution on Iraqi sovereignty:
• A proposed timetable is endorsed: an interim Iraqi government to assume sovereignty from the US-led occupation on June 30th; a transitional government to take office after elections by January 31st, 2005; a permanent government to take office by January 31st, 2006, after drafting of a constitution and elections.
• The new sovereign interim government is to refrain from taking long-term decisions before the transitional government is in power.
• The UN, if security allows, is called on to help organise elections, give advice on drafting a constitution, contribute to reconstruction, promote human rights and help plan a census.
• A US-led multinational force is authorised to take "all necessary measures", in accordance with letters annexed to the resolution from US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
• Iraq and the US command would co-ordinate policy issues "on sensitive offensive operations" to ensure "full partnership" between Iraqi forces and the international troops.
• The mandate of the foreign force expires once a permanent Iraqi government is in place, around January 2006. But Iraq can demand the Security Council end the mandate sooner.
• The resolution calls for a separate security force, but under the US command, to guard UN staff.
• It hands over to Iraq a fund for oil and gas revenues, now controlled by the occupiers. An international advisory board, including an Iraqi representative, would stay on to audit accounts but has no power to stop expenditures.
• The resolution extends a legal shield protecting Iraqi oil and gas sales from law suits. But it requires Iraqi authorities to keep depositing the proceeds into a special fund that would be monitored by the advisory board.
• An existing arms embargo would be lifted but a ban on weapons of mass destruction would remain.
• The resolution itself is silent on the future of prisons run by the United States. Mr Powell, in his letter, said the US military would continue to jail Iraqis only "where this is necessary for imperative reasons of security".
- (Reuters)