Russia's Putin Criticizes U.S. on Iraq

UNITED NATIONS - Russian President Vladimir Putin implicitly criticized the United States on Thursday for launching a war on Iraq without U.N. approval and demanded "direct participation" by the United Nations in rebuilding the country.

As the world body tries to grapple with the violence and instability in post-war Iraq, Russia, France, Germany and other opponents of the U.S.-led war have been pressing for a timetable for the United States to hand over power to Iraqis and a much greater role for the United Nations in overseeing the political transition.

Putin did not mention a timetable in his speech on the third day of the General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting, focusing instead on the demand for U.N. action on many problems facing the world today — including Iraq — and stressing that the world body is "clearly irreplaceable."

"This is made abundantly clear by the following important fact. Despite sharp differences about how to resolve the Iraq crisis, the situation ultimately is coming back to the legal sphere of the United Nations," Putin said.

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