Downer said he had been pleasantly surprised by a willingness among senior US officials to countenance a role for the United Nations in administering Iraq should the United States succeed in ousting President Saddam Hussein.

Bush spent half an hour with Downer at the White House on Tuesday, in a meeting not demanded by protocol but one which will be seen as a symbol of US gratitude for Australia's staunch support in the war with Iraq.

"It was a surprise to me because a meeting had been arranged with the vice president and we had a meeting in the Theodore Roosevelt room," Downer said.

"The meeting had been going for about five minutes or so, and suddenly the president walked in with (national security advisor) Condoleezza Rice and sat down and took over the meeting. He spent about half an hour there with us and we had a very lively and engaging discussion with him."

Downer said in a press conference on Wednesday that he had been pleased that the United States was ready to accept a United Nations role in post-war Iraq.

Australia and Britain, key members of the US-led coalition waging war, have been pushing for a significant role for the United Nations when hostilities cease.

Angered at the Security Council's failure to support the Iraq war, some Bush administration officials have however balked at such a role for the world body and hope to transfer power to an approved Iraqi leadership structure instead.

"Clearly we all want to hand over to the Iraqi people the administration of their policy as quickly as possible," Downer said.

"I don't think it is something that is going to happen in one great moment, I think it is something that is going to happen incrementally," he said, adding that domestic policy should be easily assumed by Iraqi authorities but that security would be more problematic.

"I have been very pleased that within the United States administration they have a constructive plan for how to deal with Iraq.

"The administration is very much in favor of ensuring the UN will have a constructive role to play in Iraq, in the post-war environment," he said.

But Downer added that the role of the United Nations and the exact shape of the post-war Iraqi government would only be clear once the war ended.

The foreign minister also met Deputy Defense Minister Paul Wolfowitz and IMF and World Bank chiefs during his visit to Washington and was due later on Wednesday to head to New York to discuss post-war reconstruction with senior UN officials.

Downer's trip to Washington was arranged after Australian Prime Minister John Howard declined an invitation to attend a war summit at Camp David with Bush and Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair last week.

SPACE.WIRE