The foreign minister of the new Iraqi interim government told the Security Council on Thursday that the resolution it is now considering must give Iraq full sovereignty, but he combined the appeal with a plea for the continued presence of foreign forces.
''I stress that any premature departure of international forces would lead to chaos and the real possibility of a civil war in Iraq,'' said the official, Hoshyar Zebari.
Addressing the 15-member Council, which is in its second week of debating a British-American draft resolution for Iraq, Mr. Zebari said, ''We seek a new and unambiguous resolution that underlines the transfer of full sovereignty to the people of Iraq and their representatives.''
Mr. Zebari was chosen for his office on Tuesday along with the 32 other members of the caretaker government that takes office with the transfer of sovereignty on June 30. He described the government's goal as ''sovereignty that is real, genuine, not cosmetic, one for our people, the Iraqi people, to feel it and sense it.''
He also said the measure ''must be a clear departure from previous resolutions that endorsed the occupation of our country.
Continue reading the main story''By removing the label of occupation,'' he added, ''we will deprive the terrorists and antidemocratic forces of a rallying point to foment violence in our country.''
The current lack of security in Iraq was central to his speech.
''Iraq is no longer a local issue,'' he said. ''When we talk about the battlefront of international terror, this is real, we sense it and go through it every day.''
Appearing to address demands from several countries for a clear date by which foreign troops would have to leave, he said: ''I'll be very honest. A call for an immediate withdrawal or a fixed timetable for withdrawal would be very, very unhelpful. It would be used by our enemies to complicate problems even further.''
He told Abdallah Baali, the Algerian ambassador and the lone Arab on the Security Council, that he had made it clear to Iraq's neighbors and the leaders of Arab groups that Iraq needed the presence of a multinational force ''for some time.''
''We have not completed the military and security operations to the extent that we can say goodbye to those multinational forces,'' he said. ''We say it without any sense of hesitation or shame.''
The nearly three-hour session was a lively exchange of questions and answers, with Mr. Zebari calmly steering the conversation away from subjects he considered distractions.
Aleksandr Konuzin, Russia's deputy ambassador, asked if the new government had given any thought to reviving the search by international inspectors for unconventional weapons.
''This issue is left over from previous resolutions,'' Mr. Zebari said, ''and it is too soon to address it at this stage.''
As opposed to a year ago, when the Security Council became bitterly divided over Iraq, unanimous approval of a resolution that covers posttransition Iraq -- as well as the United Nations role there and the presence of a multinational force -- does not appear in doubt.
The British ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, said after the session that he saw ''no substantive problems at all'' standing in its way.
British and American diplomats are eager for quick passage, but Secretary General Kofi Annan cautioned the Security Council against haste.
''I fully understand and accept that the resolution needs to be in place in good time for the new government to prepare to accept the responsibilities it will assume at the end of June,'' he said in remarks at a closed session preceding Mr. Zebari's appearance.
''But if discussions with the interim government on the resolution were to be seen as perfunctory or pro forma, then there would be a serious risk that its credibility in the eyes of the Iraqi people would be undermined even before it took office.''
Mr. Annan also used the occasion to praise his special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, and to dispute reports that Mr. Brahimi had been sidelined in the selection of the leaders of the new government.
''I would like to make it clear that contrary to press speculation, he and his team were fully involved throughout the decision-making process, working in close consultation with those who had explicitly sought the United Nations' assistance, namely the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council,'' he said.
China, France, Germany and Russia, all opponents of the war a year ago, have been pressing for language in the resolution making clear the power that Iraqis would have over their own troops and the mechanism they would have to ask foreign troops to leave.
Jean Marc de la Sablière of France told Mr. Zebari that while enshrining the sovereignty of Iraq and ensuring the ''operational effectiveness'' of the foreign force were not ''necessarily contradictory,'' it would be better if the specifics of how this partnership would work were spelled out in the resolution.
Mr. Brahimi himself is to brief the Council at a weekend retreat on Long Island on Saturday and more formally in the Council chamber next week.
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