The chairman of the powerful US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday urged the United Nations to play a "constructive role" in the rebuilding of Iraq.

It is in the "best interest" of member countries to take part in the process, Senator Richard Lugar said.

There will be a need for UN resolutions concerning "the international legitimacy of various things, including the currency and probably the management of some resources," said Lugar, a Republican from Indiana.

He said a UN role "ultimately depends upon whether the Security Council is prepared to do this . . . as opposed to the UN really deciding that it wants to come into a constructive role in this.

"I would hope that the latter would be the case," he added.

Lugar expressed some annoyance at the role played so far by the international body -- particularly members like France and Germany which strongly opposed the US-led coalition war but now want a significant role shaping the country's post-war fate.

Lugar referred to a UN Security Council resolution adopted last week giving the United Nations control for 45 days over the humanitarian side of the UN program using Iraq's oil revenues for food and medical supplies.

"We had a struggle just getting a 45-day resolution on the food for oil, and this is a rather minimal humanitarian thing," he said.

"It's pragmatically important to those countries and their interests to be participants," Lugar added.

Democratic minority leader Tom Daschle said he shared the opinion of US President George W. Bush for a UN role in post-war Iraq, but also for involvement of the international community "in large measure with US and British leadership."

"But it can't be exclusively a responsibility of our country," Daschle said.

"We can't afford it, and I don't think it would be appropriate for us to take that kind of a role."

At a summit in Northern Ireland with British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday, Bush pledged the United Nations will play a vital role in post-war Iraq.

As US-led forces seem on the verge of destroying the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Bush offered reassurances that Washington will not act unilaterally in rebuilding the country.

Britain, France and Germany reportedly want the United Nations to oversee any interim Iraqi administration. Washington wants initial US-British military control.

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