Washington: The US-led coalition forces in Iraq "will depart" if the interim Iraqi Government to be set up under the UN Security Council wishes so, Secretary of State Colin Powell said today (May 28, 2004).

These forces will be there with the consent of that Government. "If consent is withdrawn, it is withdrawn and coalition forces will depart," Powell said.

The US-UK-sponsored draft UN resolution, he pointed out, also provides for a review after 12 months.

Powell said, "Many of our friends around the world and especially some of those who were not supportive and were quite critical of our efforts last year to liberate Iraq have been saying 'you should turn it over to a sovereign Government and you should do it under a UN resolution that empowers that sovereign Government.

"Well, that is now to happen. On July 1 there will be such a Government and I hope all European nations as well as other nations throughout the world will examine this in the light of this new situation and respond as best as they can to the requests they receive from the President and Prime Minister of the new interim Iraqi Government.

"Some nations, he said, have made it clear they will not be able to send troops. But 16 of the 26 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) nations have troops there, so it is a pretty good coalition of NATO nations and I think that coalition will grow but I am not expecting this resolution to open up the floodgates with additional major troop contributions."