France pushing for more Iraq text changes - Chirac

France is holding out for further amendments to a US draft resolution on rebuilding Iraq, including a bigger role for the United Nations, President Jacques Chirac said yesterday.

The extent of UN involvement is a sticking point in negotiations over a text that would give the United States and Britain wide-ranging powers to run Iraq and decide how to spend its oil wealth for reconstruction purposes.

A revised draft circulated last week beefed up the role of a UN envoy in Iraq. But France, Russia and China, who have veto powers on the UN Security Council, still have reservations.

"The president said he was convinced the text can be markedly improved so everyone can look upon it favourably," Chirac's spokeswoman told reporters after he met Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik.

"As it stands, the role envisaged for the United Nations is unsatisfactory," she added.

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, speaking at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, said he was counting on the support of Britain and Spain, who co-sponsored the resolution.

France is trying to patch up transatlantic relations battered by its threat to use its Security Council veto against any US resolution calling for war - a stance that finally forced Washington to forgo UN backing. Foreign Minister Villepin said he was optimistic after speaking to US Secretary of State Colin Powell by telephone over the weekend.

"I would like to think that he will take into account the concerns we have expressed," Villepin told reporters. "In peace, we must find common ground. Let us set aside pride."

The United States is pushing for a vote this week but European diplomats said they expected the issue might not be settled until leaders of the world's eight leading industrial democracies meet in Evian, France on June 1-3.

The resolution, which is aimed at ending 13 years of UN sanctions on Iraq, is expected to be adopted.

The United States and Britain want a large majority in the 15-member Security Council. None of the major powers has threatened to use their veto and none is expected to do so.

However, diplomats said several EU foreign ministers told British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in Brussels that it would be hard for them to take part in either peacekeeping or reconstruction in Iraq unless there was a UN mandate.

The ministers insisted there should be UN certification that Iraq was free of weapons of mass destruction, transparency on Iraqi oil revenues, and a legitimate UN authority to receive European reconstruction assistance, they said.

The diplomats said Straw told ministers the resolution would call for "independent certification" on weapons of mass destruction, which fell short of an explicit role for UN inspectors, and an Iraqi Development Agency run by international financial institutions to channel reconstruction aid.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said in Kiev yesterday good progress had been made on the draft resolution.

"All sides are in active talks. On some issues we managed to make good progress, but there are disagreements," he said.