NEW YORK, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell announced Wednesday the United States is offering a draft resolution seeking U.N. support for a multinational force in Iraq.
The step is being widely viewed as a significant change in U.S. strategy.
But Powell said the U.S. draft proposes keeping such a U.N. force under U.S. command, with the United States continuing to play a "dominant role" in the country.
The International Herald Tribune said Powell is portraying the call for new U.N. authority in Iraq as part of a continuing U.S. push for more international involvement in that nation.
But the Tribune said the move clearly departs from the administration's insistence that the "vital role" it saw for the world body there was purely humanitarian.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan, however, told reporters Washington had not changed its approach and negotiations are just beginning.
