The Bush administration on Thursday faced a skeptical U.N. Security Council over its proposals to persuade nations to contribute troops and money for Iraq, with France and Germany leading the criticism.

French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (R) exchange a handshake in front of the famous Dresden castle Zwinger, Sept 4, 2003. Chirac and Schroeder said on Thursday they were not ready yet to accept a U.S. draft for a new United Nations resolution on Iraq.    [Reuters]

Other council members, such as Mexico and Chile, were less hostile to the U.S.-drafted resolution but emphasized they would like to see a stronger U.N. political role in Iraq.

Syria alone among the 15 council members said the United Nations rather than the United States should lead a multinational force the draft is designed to create.

Starting negotiations, the United States hosted its first meeting late on Thursday among the other permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, France, Russia and China -- to gather initial impressions on the resolution.

Speaking in Dresden, Germany, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the present draft resolution did not grant enough responsibility to Iraqis and short-changed a meaningful role for the United Nations in the process of creating a new Iraqi government.

Both nations, along with Russia and China, also led the international prewar opposition to U.S. invasion of Iraq, one reason the Bush administration until this month sidelined the United Nations rather than face another bruising clash..

"We are ready to examine the proposals but they seem quite far from what appears to us the primary objective, namely the transfer of political responsibility to an Iraqi government as soon as possible," Chirac said.

In response, Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Washington, "I don't sense from their statement that they said what exactly they are looking for or who they would turn it (responsibility for running Iraq) over to if we were turning it over right away."

Asked if a quick handover to Iraqis would not swap one dictatorship for another, France's U.N ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said his country would be submitting amendments in negotiations on precisely what it had in mind.

And German Ambassador Gunter Pleuger said the draft, which asks for financial contributions, should reflect "transparency" in the economic reconstruction of the country.

In the main, the proposal is designed to attract India as well as Muslim nations Turkey, Pakistan and others to send troops by creating a multinational force led by the United States and authorized by the United Nations. All have refused without another U.N. endorsement.

The draft resolution calls for U.N. recognition of the U.S.-selected Iraqi Governing Council as an interim administration.

It also invites the Governing Council to develop a timetable for drafting a constitution and holding elections. The United Nations would play a key role in helping to organize this process, along with the occupying nations.

But U.N. officials are getting nervous about future tasks and any ill-defined mandate, with several saying Secretary-General Kofi Annan needed to be involved in the talks following the deadly Aug. 19 bombing in Baghdad that cost the lives of 22 people and injured countless others.

"We don't know if anyone has taken on board the magnitude of the disaster two weeks ago," said one official. "Clearly it has something to do with the ambiguity of the situation we find ourselves."

With staunch ally Britain holding the presidency of the 15-member Security Council, the United States hopes a resolution can be approved before President Bush addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 23.

Chile's U.N. ambassador, Heraldo Munoz called the resolution a "positive step" and "better than what we have right now. But he suggested he could be more specific on the political role of the United Nations.

His Mexican colleague Adolfo Aguilar Zinser agreed. "The philosophical view of Mexico is this is a job for the United Nations," he told reporters.

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