President Bush on Tuesday rejected any speedy transfer of power to Iraqis as world leaders criticized him for bypassing the United Nations to launch the war that ousted Saddam Hussein.

In a speech to the UN General Assembly devoid of humility or hubris, Bush urged other nations to share the burdens of the postwar occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, a year after he told the 191-member body it risked irrelevance if it did not enforce Security Council resolutions on Saddam.

He faced stiff criticism from French President Jacques Chirac, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, who faulted the United States for taking the law into its own hands by launching a unilateral, preemptive invasion.

Bush declared, "Now the nation of Iraq needs and deserves our aid -- and all nations of good will should step forward and provide that support."

Iraqi self-government should be "reached by orderly and democratic means," he added. "This process must unfold according to the needs of Iraqis -- neither hurried nor delayed by the wishes of other parties."

The United Nations could help draft a constitution and supervise elections, Bush said.

Chirac demanded a realistic timetable for handing sovereignty to the Iraqi people within months in a process supervised by the United Nations, saying that was "essential for stability and reconstruction."

Bush, whose approval ratings have slumped partly due to the soaring costs of the occupation, offered no apology for the chaotic security situation or the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, cited as the main reason for the war.

He and Chirac apparently failed to narrow their differences over the pace of a hand over to Iraqi sovereignty in private talks after their speeches, but a US official said the French leader pledged not to "stand in the way" of a US resolution.

Chirac told a news conference it was hard for Iraqis to accept occupation and "we run the risk of a further deterioration of the situation." But he denied any personal animosity with Bush, saying they agreed on many issues.

While Bush won a polite ovation, Chirac, Annan and Lula drew far more sustained applause.

Gap not so wide?

The United States is working on a new UN resolution aimed at enlisting wider support for reconstruction and easing the strain on US-led occupation forces under daily attack.

Several leaders said the gap between the United States and France was not as wide as it seemed. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said: "I believe that we have seen today the basis for a common agenda and I hope very much we can achieve that."

And Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, a strong critic of the war, said he did not want to rake over past differences and all sides now shared the same goal of transferring power to the Iraqi people as soon as possible, while being realistic.

"The reality is the goals are the same for everybody and the means vary, but I don't think we will be locking horns for the sake of locking horns," he told reporters.

Opening the annual session, Annan took an unusually blunt swipe at the world's only superpower, saying unilateral, preemptive military action without UN authority risked returning the world to the law of the jungle.

Chirac, who led a diplomatic campaign to deny UN blessing for the invasion of Iraq, echoed his theme. "The war launched without Security Council authorization shook the multilateral system ... No one can act alone in the name of all, and no one can accept the anarchy of a society without rules," he said.

Annan said sidestepping the United Nations in waging war called into question the entire structure of collective action forged when the United Nations was created on the ashes of World War II in 1945.

But he cautioned against denouncing unilateralism without trying to understand what motivates countries to feel "uniquely vulnerable." And he announced plans for a high-level panel to rethink UN security structures.

Bush also called on the United Nations to act on such global challenges as the spread of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, rebuilding Afghanistan, AIDS, hunger and slavery.

He proposed a UN drive to intercept suspected shipments of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons components in transit, winning backing from Chirac.

(China Daily September 24, 2003)