By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The United States and co-sponsors of the new draft Security Council resolution on Iraq intensified discussions with other members of the council May 14 in a push to get the text, which would lift economic sanctions on Iraq and pave the way for resuming oil exports, adopted within a week.

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said, "for us, the most important point is that we think we need to move quickly. The sanctions need to be lifted as soon as possible and we need to move on with many of the pressing questions which relate to restoring economic activity to the hands of the people of Iraq."

An important consideration in pressing for a vote at the earliest is that "oil tanks are almost full," Negroponte said. "It is important that as soon as possible we be in a position to see the oil being lifted out of Iraq once again."

"The crude is about to reach the point of just sitting there and waiting to be exported," he said. "If it isn't exported, that has repercussions and reverberations right down throughout the system including, as I understand it, impacting (Iraq's) ability to manufacture products that can be used in the Iraqi market itself."

The council also needs to authorize the United Nations to name a special coordinator for Iraq to coordinate the various U.N. activities in the country and pave the way for stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq, Negroponte said.

"The U.N., as far as we're concerned, will have a vital role that's going to be in several different areas -- humanitarian is certainly one where the U.N. already has the coordinating role," the ambassador said. "We hope to create the conditions as soon as possible -- preferably next week -- which would create the kind of mandate that would enable the secretary general to designate a special coordinator."

The four-page draft resolution is co-sponsored by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain. The lengthy, detailed, highly technical, and complex draft resolution requires nations to return Iraqi cultural property and ban international trade on such items, deny safe haven to members of Saddam Hussein's regime, and freeze the financial assets of Saddam Hussein and other of his senior officials.

It sets out the role for the United Nations in Iraq, maintains the arms embargo imposed in 1991, and sets up an "Iraqi Assistance Fund" to receive the money remaining in the Oil-for-Food account and new oil proceeds. It also gives the Oil-for-Food program four months to wind down operations.

Council President Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan said that the council is "in the stage of clarifications. Negotiations may come later."

Requests for clarifications, Akram said, covered a whole gamut of issues including references to previous resolutions, implications of certain provisions on the future of Iraq, what the powers of the administering authority would be, what the powers of the U.N. would be, how the process of moving toward representative government would be undertaken, and how funds are to be administered.

Also present at the meeting were the U.N. legal counsel and the undersecretary general responsible for the Oil-for-Food program.

Negroponte said that he expects to have a modified text of the resolution that attempts to take into account the comments made by delegations ready for a meeting of legal experts scheduled for May 15.

That modified text "will still be a draft resolution and then we expect some time during the course of next week -- we haven't determined exactly when -- we would expect to put the resolution to a vote," the U.S. ambassador said.