Message Board

Is the US acting as a sole superpower by snubbing UN? Post your views

Baghdad: The United States said on May 15 it could consider accepting a suspension of UN sanctions on Iraq, where the new US administrator vowed to wipe out the remains of Saddam Hussein's regime and two more wanted former Iraqi officials were reportedly captured.

The United States would "look at the idea of initially suspending sanctions" even though "we think it is much cleaner to lift the sanctions", US Secretary of State Colin Powell told a press conference in Sofia during a brief visit.

The diplomatic development came as Iraq's new US boss Paul Bremer vowed to boost security in Iraq and wipe out the remnants of Saddam's regime, in his first press conference since taking over as the country's administrator.

And the US Central Command in Dubai said it had captured Iraq's former armed forces chief Ibrahim Ahmed Abed as-Sattar Mohammed al-Tikriti, 11th on the US list of 55 most-wanted Saddam regime members.

Another person on the list was captured in a massive overnight raid near Tikrit, and local residents and officials identified him as Abdel Baqi al-Karim Abdullah, the Baath Party leader in Diyala province and 22nd on the list.

The US says it holds more than 20 of the most-wanted Iraqis, but the fate of Saddam himself remains shrouded in mystery.

Powell's conciliatory gesture came as the US and Britain worked on a revised text of a resolution to lift the economic sanctions imposed on Baghdad after it invaded Kuwait in 1990 and to effectively put Iraq's vast oil riches under US-British control for at least a year.

PTI