Germany, France Still Skeptical of American U.N. Proposal

At a joint press conference in Dresden, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said the new U.S. resolution calling for a U.N. role in Iraq is "not dynamic enough."

The two Iraq war opponents would not comment on details of the resolution, which has yet to be officially introduced and is still being worked on by the Bush administration.

But Chirac told reporters that "the proposals … seem quite far from what appears to us to be the primary objective, namely the transfer of political responsibility to an Iraqi government as soon as possible."

The draft resolution being worked on in Washington reportedly keeps political power in the hands of U.S. appointee Paul Bremer, the country's civilian administrator.

Schröder said the proposals weren't "dynamic enough, or sufficient enough."

U.N. role pivotal for other countries

With the body count among U.S. and British troops rising on an almost daily level, the governments in London and Washington have been scrambling to get other nations to pledge troops or involve themselves otherwise in Iraq. Major allies like Russia, France and the Arab nations have said they will only consider involvement if it is underneath a U.N. umbrella.

After initially hesitating on giving the U.N. a major role in postwar Iraq, the Bush administration has begun to bend a bit amid increasing lawlessness and terrorism in the newly-conquered country. The draft resolution calls for a multinational force under a U.N. mandate but under the control of an American to maintain peace in Iraq.

Government officials of the two European powers said they are willing to work with the U.S. proposal.

Germany: Still no Iraq troops

Whatever the differences in the past, the point now is about "giving Iraq and stability and democratic perspective," said Schröder.

But German government politicians maintained that they would not send Bundeswehr troops to Iraq, even under a U.N. mandate.

"From our view, we've contributed so far with humanitarian aid," Olaf Scholz, the general secretary of Schröder's Social Democratic Party told German radio. "Whatever other requests are made, we need to review them carefully."