By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The United States is moving ahead in negotiations on a strong UN Security Council resolution to force Iraq to disarm, and it fully expects the resolution to be completed "in the not-too-distant future," Secretary of State Colin Powell said September 16.

"We have always wanted full implementation of all United Nations resolutions and there will be in the not-too-distant future, I hope, a new resolution from the United Nations that will capture all the violations of the last 11 years. We'll see whether or not Iraq understands the seriousness of the position it is in and whether it will respond to this direction from the Security Council," Powell said.

Powell is at the United Nations meeting with members of the Security Council and other world leaders. Earlier in the day he attended a General Assembly session on Africa.

Powell said that he is "very pleased" at the response to President Bush's September 12 General Assembly speech he has received during his meetings.

In his speech President Bush outlined Iraq's numerous violations of Security Council resolutions and called the regime of Saddam Hussein "exactly the kind of aggressive threat the United Nations was born to confront." Bush said that the United States would work with the Security Council to confront Iraq, but "the purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced...or action will be unavoidable."

Powell will discuss Iraq at every bilateral meeting he has with foreign ministers, a U.S. official said. On September 16, meetings with the foreign ministers of Colombia, Mexico and Syria -- three of the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council -- were on his agenda.

From his numerous bilateral meetings, the secretary said, he found that "the political dynamic has changed and there is a great deal of pressure being placed upon Iraq to come into compliance with the UN mandates of the last 12 years."

While the resolution is still in the early stages of negotiation, the secretary said, "I've been encouraged by what I've heard so far from the Security Council representatives that I've spoken to."

But he cautioned that he has been "consulting" on the resolution. "This is a negotiation and we're just now starting to look at language, so I would not want to prejudge what my Security Council colleagues would agree to," he said.

Nevertheless, Powell said, "I am absolutely sure...that we are going to continue to move forward within the Security Council on a new resolution."

Most importantly, the secretary said, the resolution now being negotiated is going to be "on new terms."

It will be "a strong resolution and if any conditions are placed, they'll be conditions that are placed by the United Nations on Iraq, and not conditions that Iraq is going to place on the United Nations," Powell said.