Annan Talks Up Postwar U.N. Role

Arguing that the United Nations must play a role in rebuilding war-torn Iraq, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday that the international organization would bring legitimacy to any government that rises from the ruins of battle.

At the same time, Annan emphasized that Iraqis should be responsible for their own political future and control the natural resources within their oil-rich country.

“I do expect the U.N. to play an important role [in rebuilding Iraq], and the U.N. has good experience in this area,” Annan said.

“We have done quite a bit of work on reconstruction, working with donor countries,” he said during a brief interview as he entered U.N. headquarters in New York.

“You have seen the work the U.N. has done in human rights and the area of rule of law. So there are lots of areas where the U.N. can play a role. Above all, the U.N. involvement does bring legitimacy, which is necessary -- necessary for the country, for the region and for the people around the world.”

Annan announced that he will visit Europe and Russia this week to confer with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.

Annan’s comments came as President Bush arrived in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for his third wartime summit with Blair in less than a month. The leaders plan to discuss what role, if any, the U.N. and countries such as France, Germany and Russia, which had vociferously opposed Bush’s war plans, should play in Iraq’s recovery.

Blair, the U.S.’ staunchest ally in the war, favors a broad international reconstruction effort.

But Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s national security advisor, said as recently as Friday that the U.S.-led coalition “will have the lead role ... having given life and blood to liberate Iraq.” Bush’s vision for rebuilding Iraq calls initially for a short-term U.S. civil administrator and an interim authority made up of Iraqis now living in the country as well as exiles.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told reporters aboard Air Force One as it flew toward Belfast on Monday that Bush and Blair are not as far apart as has been portrayed. Still, Powell conceded that the two countries “have just started to discuss the issue [and] we’ve just started to put down different points of view.”

During their summit, Bush and Blair also plan to discuss the Middle East peace process as well as the current deadlock in carrying out the 5-year-old Belfast peace accord.

Before sitting down to dinner Monday, the leaders took a 45-minute stroll through the gardens of Hillsborough Castle just south of Belfast. Tom Kelly, Blair’s spokesman, said the informal setting was designed to replicate the relaxed ambience at Camp David, the U.S. presidential retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains, and to foster a “free-ranging” discussion.

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Goldman reported from the United Nations and Chen from Belfast.