By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said January 14 that he sees the coming meeting of officials from the United Nations, Iraq's Governing Council and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) as a "step forward" in the return of the United Nations to Iraq.

"I think it's a sign that the United Nations is taking a hard look at some of the practicalities of re-engaging in Iraq," said Negroponte, the chief U.S. envoy to the United Nations.

"I look at this meeting ... as a step forward towards the re-engagement of the United Nations in Iraq," Negroponte said. "And by having the dialogue at such a high level, I think that that augers well for the prospects of moving this issue forward."

Secretary General Kofi Annan will meet on January 19 with Adnan Pachachi, president of Iraq's Governing Council, and other Iraqi officials along with representatives of the United State-led CPA on the future role of the United Nations in Iraq.

Negroponte said he did not expect the meeting to yield any concrete results or decisions on exactly when the United Nations will return to Iraq and in what role. Instead, he said, "it will be an opportunity for a thorough review of the bidding by some of the principal actors involved."

The United States has not made a final decision on who will represent the United States in the talks, the ambassador said.

The United States will be "appropriately represented but we have not made any final decisions as to who will lead our delegation or whom the participants will be," Negroponte told journalists after a private Security Council meeting on Iraq's request to meet with council members as well on January 19.

Council President Ambassador Heraldo Munoz of Chile announced that the secretary general and the Iraqi delegation will be invited to a private meeting at 5 p.m. to brief the 15-member Security Council on what transpired during the day-long talks.

In another development, the United Nations has informed the United States that it would like to send a team of two military and two security experts to Baghdad to review security issues in order to prepare for the eventual return of the United Nations staff to Iraq. The team would leave for Iraq within two weeks.

"The return to Iraq of U.N. international staff is contingent on acquiring and upgrading suitable working and living accommodations and enhancing security arrangements," Undersecretary General Kieran Prendergast said in a letter to Negroponte, asking for U.S. assistance for the team.

Negroponte said that the United States has "responded affirmatively to that request."

"We are favorably disposed and want to respond as positively as we can to that query," the ambassador said.

Prendergast also met with members of the U.S. National Security Council, the State Department and the Defense Department on January 13 to discuss the handover of power to Iraqis by June 30.

The secretary general withdrew all U.N. international staff from Iraq after the bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003. Annan has said that security concerns will be a major consideration in his decision whether or when to send U.N. staff back into the country and he will be weighing whether the substance of the U.N. role is proportionate to the risks.