Berlin, Moscow want rebuilding of post-war Iraq under UN: Putin

Berlin, Moscow want rebuilding of post-war Iraq under UN: Putin

Agencies Saint Petersburg, Russia

Berlin and Moscow want the reconstruction of post-war Iraq to be under UN auspices, Russian President Vladimir Putin said here on Friday during talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

"Moscow and Berlin believe the main task is to urgently return the Iraqi settlement process to within the framework of the United Nations," the Russian leader said during a bilateral meeting in Russia's second city.

"The war (in Iraq) has been going on for more than three weeks. Its results are clear and only provoke regret," Putin added, in his first public comment since the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime on Wednesday, when U.S. forces swept into Baghdad.

"Our countries must do everything to preserve the stability of the system of international law, which is based on the supremacy of the United Nations," Putin said.

Putin was to host a trilateral summit later with Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac aiming to carve out a role for their countries in Iraq through the United Nations, in the face of sweeping U.S. battlefield gains.

Putin, Chirac and Schroeder have sought a central role for the United Nations in post-war Iraq, a position that has been treated with open skepticism in Washington, which wants initial U.S. military control.

Putin said the world was better off without Saddam but he criticized the U.S. military force by which the Iraqi leader had been toppled.

Speaking alongside Schroeder at a conference in Russia's second city, he said: "We always said that the regime of Saddam Hussein does not correspondent to democracy and human rights ... but you can not solve such problems with military means."

Answering a question from a conference participant, Putin said 80 percent of the world fell short of western standards of democracy. "Do we go to war with all of them?," he asked.

"If we weigh up what is good and what is bad in the results of this war -- it is positive that we have got rid of a tyrannical regime. But by what means ? - losses, destruction and the deaths of people. This is a negative consequence," he said.

In reply to a question, he discounted a carve-up of interests in Iraq like that decided at the post-World War II conference in Yalta which divided conquered Europe into zones of influence.

This, he said, was not his notion of a system of international security and he called for the Iraqi issue to be solved within the UN.

"We stand for the fastest return of this issue to the framework of the United Nations," Putin said.

"Russia and Germany are in favor of a political solution. There are no prospects for a military solution," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has poured scorn on appeals to allow the United Nations to take a leading role in postwar Iraq. A top Pentagon official on Thursday suggested the France, Germany and Russia would better contribute to reconstruction by forgiving debts to any new Iraqi government.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said earlier on Friday that it was up to the United Nations to safeguard international peace and security.