Iraq asks U.N. to let US-led force stay

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iraq asked the U.N. Security
Council on Monday to let a U.S.-led multinational force remain
in Iraq for another year, acknowledging its own troops could
not yet assure national security.

The request came in a letter to the 15-nation council from
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.

“This means that basically the mandate and the status of
the multinational force will be discussed in the coming weeks
so that from January 1, 2006, we will have a consistent
military presence in Iraq as happened in the past,”
Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu, the foreign minister of Romania, the
Security Council president for October, told reporters.

The multinational force’s current mandate expires at the
end of this year, under a resolution approved by the council in
June 2004, when the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority
turned over Iraq’s administration to an interim government.

Extending the mandate through the end of 2006 will require
the council to adopt a new resolution in the next two months.

Jaafari said the government in Baghdad wanted the right to
terminate the mandate before the end of 2006 if it decided to
do so. He also asked the council to agree to review the new
mandate eight months after its approval or at any other time if
asked to do so by Baghdad.

“The Iraqi national security forces, which are increasing
in size, capability and experience day after day, need more
time to complete their ranks, training and equipment in order
to take over the primary responsibility of providing adequate
security for Iraqis,” Jaafari wrote.

Under the political timetable set out in the June 2004
resolution, Iraqis are to elect a government by December 31 now
that the new constitution has been approved in an October 15
referendum. Parliamentary elections have been set for December
15.

There are now about 175,000 soldiers in the multinational
force, including about 150,000 from the United States.