New UN resolution on Iraq jeopardized by fierce resistance: US officials

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is rethinking plans to press ahead with a new UN resolution that would expand the mandate of the stabilization force in Iraq after meeting fierce resistance from opponents of the war, US officials said.

Although the officials stressed the idea was not dead they said the initial reaction to US suggestions presented last week had not been positive and that their hopes for passing a new resolution in early September had dimmed.

"The initial reaction wasn't very promising," one State Department official said of the response to suggestions for the resolution put forward by John Negroponte, the US ambassador to the United Nations.

The negative reactions -- mainly from anti-war Security Council members France, Russia and Germany -- revolve around US insistence that it not cede any control over the command of the stabilization force, officials said.

In addition, those nations and some other council members are resisting any language in the resolution that would suggest UN authorization of the war after the fact, the officials said.

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