By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The United States and United Kingdom began talks inside the Security Council August 21 about the possibility of a new resolution to encourage additional international support for Iraq and strengthen the role of the United Nations in restoring the country.

Discussions on a third Security Council resolution since May intensified as Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw arrived at U.N. Headquarters August 21 while the 15-nation Security Council held both public and private sessions on Iraq.

Powell told journalists after meeting with Secretary General Kofi Annan that the United States would explore the possibility of a new resolution to "reaffirm our determination to succeed in Iraq" and perhaps encourage other countries to contribute troops.

Nevertheless, both Powell and Annan ruled out the possibility of a U.N. peacekeeping force, often referred to as blue helmets, taking over for the U.S.-led coalition force.

"You have to have competent control of a large military organization," Powell said. "That's what the coalition brings and that's what U.S. leadership brings to the coalition."

Noting that there are already troops from 30 nations on the ground in Iraq, Straw said, "nobody is talking about blue helmeted United Nations troops."

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said that in a private council meeting the two delegations "laid out what we thought was a number of issues and concerns and challenges in the main areas, the security area, political and economic." He added that they expected the dialogue to expand beyond the 15 members of the Security Council to other countries interested in helping Iraq, whether it be through contributing troops or working through United Nations programs.

During the discussions on security, Negroponte said the delegations specifically dealt with the questions of how to stop the flow of terrorists across Iraq's borders and how to create conditions that would encourage countries to contribute troops to the coalition force.

On economic issues, the ambassador said, "we mentioned first of all the question of frozen Iraqi assets abroad and the fact that we felt that the flow of those assets into the Development Fund for Iraq was disappointingly slow. Second, what steps, if any, the council might take to encourage robust participation in the donor's conference in Madrid that's scheduled for the 24th of October."

U.K. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said that Security Council resolutions 1483 and 1500 provide a good basis for the international community's involvement in Iraq.

However, he said, "the question we are addressing is the extent to which we should go beyond that to see whether in the fields of security, economic development and, especially, political development whether there is scope to intensify what we are about."

Resolution 1483, passed May 22, expressed the United Nations' resolve to play a vital role in humanitarian relief, reconstruction, and the restoration and establishment of national and local institutions. It set out the areas in which the U.N. should be involved, such as refugees, human rights, and judicial reform and created the position of the U.N. special envoy. Resolution 1500, passed August 14, officially established the 300-member United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq for an initial period of one year.

Jones Parry said that the United States and United Kingdom "put the issues on the table" and "invited colleagues to consider whether there is something we can do now to intensify the U.N. effort; whether we can provide through the United Nations a means of bringing in more countries" to be actively involved in Iraq.

The U.K. envoy said that the two delegations did not submit a draft resolution. "There is certainly no wish to impose anything. We posed the question: Should there be another resolution?" he said.

In response to questions about the possibility of a military operation in Iraq similar to the one in Afghanistan where the international force operates under a U.N. mandate but has broad independence under U.S. control, Negroponte said that he "certainly wouldn't want to slam the door shut on that possibility now."