The UN Security Council will discuss the contentious issue lifting of sanctions against Iraq next week for the first time.
The US wants quick action to end sanctions, but diplomats warned that the matter could be long-drawn out and difficult to resolve.
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US President George W. Bush has urged the UN to lift the 13-year-old sanctions on Iraq's economy.
The call came after EU leaders yesterday backed British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair's plea to rebuild Iraq.
Mr Blair succeeded in narrowing divisions with those who had been opposed to military action, including French President Jacques Chirac, at an EU summit in Athens.
Mr Blair again stressed the importance of the UN in rebuilding Iraq during a meeting with Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The lifting of sanctions is linked to UN certification that Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed.
The Security Council imposed sanctions banning all countries from importing any Iraqi goods, including its oil exports, four days after Saddam's forces invaded Kuwait in August 1990. An arms embargo was added after the first Gulf War ended with Iraq's defeat.
Sanctions were later modified to allow oil revenue to be used to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian items for the Iraqi people.
The resolution states that sanctions can be lifted when the council has agreed that Iraq has completed this disarmament.
US Ambassador to the UN, Mr John Negroponte said Washington was still discussing the specifics of lifting sanctions. "We visualise some kind of a step-by-step procedure with respect to post-conflict resolutions regarding Iraq," he said. "Certainly one of the issues we're going to have to deal with early on is sanctions".
PA