By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte presented the final draft of a proposed resolution on Iraq to the Security Council May 19, saying that he expected a vote to take place by the end of the week.

Talking with journalists before the private council meeting began, Negroponte said, "we think it's a good resolution. It meets the purposes that we have been outlining during the past couple weeks -- particularly the lifting of sanctions so that the oil revenues can help get the Iraq economy going again, fleshing out the role of the representative of the secretary general, and other questions."

The revised draft "makes an effort to address the concerns and issues that have been raised by many of the other delegations during intense consultations and exchanges we had last week," the ambassador said.

Negroponte said that resolution "continues to adhere" to the position set out in the first version of the draft resolution that the coalition forces have the responsibility to search for the weapons of mass destruction. It foresees no role for the U.N. weapons inspectors -- the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC)-- in the immediate future, he said.

The Gulf War cease-fire resolution (resolution 687), which the new resolution would supersede, declared that sanctions could only be lifted after U.N. weapons inspectors certified that Iraq was free of weapons of mass destruction.

The revised draft resolution was submitted to the council "in blue" which means that the draft resolution's sponsors can call for a vote after 24 hours.

Negroponte did not reject the idea that the United States or co-sponsors United Kingdom and Spain would agree to changes after further negotiations. However, the ambassador said, "we never say 'never,' but clearly by putting it in blue what we are signaling is that we have gone just about as far as we can in meeting the concerns that have been expressed by other delegations."

"We think it's a fair, complete and eminently workable resolution," he said.

The resolution, Negroponte said, would give U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and the United Nations "a vital role in the humanitarian area, in facilitating the return to representative government in Iraq," and in several other areas such as protection of human rights.

"We consider it a very robust role, indeed," he said.