The big problem is security. If the new government has no power to control the American and other troops which will stay on with its agreement, it will lack even the basic elements of sovereignty. It will in any case have no power to make or change laws during the six months or so it will hold office as a caretaker until elections in December or January. A senior British official said that the new Iraqi government had to have a major security role if sovereignty was to mean anything. "I do not see how a sovereign government cannot exercise broad guidance over the force. It is difficult to say that it is sovereign if it cannot," the official stated. This would mean that the government would, for example, be able to prevent the force from carrying out a major attack like the recent one in Falluja. "The force has to be free to respond to attacks, but if it wants to embark on a major operation and does so without consulting the government, you are in a crisis," he said.

New UN resolution: The same would apply to Iraqi control of prisons, though their running might be devolved to US forces. The official said that foreign troops would have to leave Iraq if asked to do by an Iraqi government. "The bottom line is that the Iraqi government has to be content for the troops to stay. If its consent is withheld, the troops will have to get out," he said. Talks have started at the United Nations about a new Security Council resolution to give international authority to the handover arrangements but there are competing demands among members of the council. The interim government will also have to be brought into the talks -but it has yet to be appointed. The British UN ambassador, Sir Emyr Jones Parry, said that the atmosphere in the talks had been good, "with no major recriminations" between those countries that supported the war and those that did not. A British official said that he hoped for a text by the end of May, and maybe a vote in the first 10 days or so of June, but he admitted that it could all slip.

Kosovo example: One idea being discussed is that there should be an Iraqi National Security Council. It would be chaired by the Iraqi prime minister and its members would include the Iraqi ministers of defence and the interior, the US ambassador and the senior American general. It would set guidelines for the role of the troops, but would not control their day-to-day actions. The US is saying that a four-star American general has to be in control of all military forces, including the new Iraqi army. The senior British official said that there had to be unified military command but that Iraqi troops should answer to the Iraqi government. He used the example of Kosovo when a British general appealed to London to back him in refusing an order to confront the Russians.

'Real break': The French are proposing that a time limit should be set for the force. The French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said: "The UN should set a time limit on the multi-national force to expire when the new government is elected next year." The French and others say that, at the least, it should be spelled out that the force can stay only with the consent of the Iraqi government. Mr Barnier said that there had to be a "real break" with the occupation. "If you miss the first step you fall flat on your face," he said.

Iraqi conference: The UN resolution is likely to contain the following additional elements:

• A statement saying clearly that the occupation is over. "It is important to create facts to substantiate that," said the British official. This has important legal implications. There will no longer be a "state of armed conflict" and the Geneva Conventions will no longer apply. A framework of Iraqi law will have to be used instead.

   

• A clause outlining a role for the UN. The idea is that the UN will take a prominent role in helping to organise the elections and in establishing new institutions for the rule of law and human rights. But much depends on the UN being able to operate safely and the US and British hope that some countries might provide troops specifically for this purpose.

   

• The Russians have proposed an international conference in advance of the handover to give its blessing to the plan. However, the UN regards this as not practical in the time available and its envoy Lakhdar Brahimi wants an internal Iraqi conference in July which would perhaps have international observers attached to it. -Paul Reynold.