In a series of interviews with foreign media outlets and congressional testimony, Powell appeared to share British concerns about keeping a military occupation government in place in Baghdad indefinitely without any international or Iraqi participation.
"We all understand there has to be a role for the United Nations," he said in an interview with India's Doordarshan television. "There has to be international legitimacy for all of the actions that we are taking.
"We will work our way through this," Powell said, ahead of talks between US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair expected to focus on the conflict as well as the post-war administration of Iraq.
He stressed that immediately after the fall of Saddam's regime, the US military would take control of the Iraqi government, but that it would be soon joined by an interim authority made of up Iraqis and then a UN coordinator.
"We will put in place what we are calling an Iraqi Interim Administration ... that will provide the nucleus of a new government and will begin to exert authority over various functions of the emerging Iraqi government," Powell said.
"We will do this with full understanding of the international community and with the UN presence in the form of a UN special coordinator ... with UN recognition of what we are doing and some level of endorsement in the form of a new UN resolution," he said - Sapa-AFP
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