Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Jacques Chirac of France and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder demanded a central role for the world body in the reconstruction of Iraq but implicitly acknowledged their powerlessness by ending their meeting without a joint declaration.

Putin told an audience of jurists at the Saint Petersburg Law Faculty that the three leaders, who had strongly opposed the US-led drive to war on Baghdad without UN approval, agreed that only the United Nations could oversee the rebuilding of Iraq.

"The United Nations must play a central role to assure Iraq's sovereignty," said Chirac.

In comments likely to further strain relations with Washington, the three leaders said the future world order was at stake as only the United Nations could ensure that Iraq's reconstruction was taking place within the framework of international law.

Schroeder, who was awarded an honorary law degree from the university where Putin himself once studied, stressed that "the UN Security Council must confer legitimacy" on any reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

"The United Nations is the only organization that rests on universal and cooperative notions," he said.

All three countries lobbied furiously against a draft UN resolution that would have authorized military force against Iraq, arguing that disarmament of Iraq was being achieved by peaceful means through the work of UN weapons inspectors.

They also warned of the dangers of Washington and London launching a war without UN Security Council approval, an action that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said violated the UN Charter.

Chirac, the most vocal critic of the war prior to the start of hostilities, noted that the crisis had left both transatlantic and inter-European relations badly bruised.

"In the Iraqi crisis, the international community is divided. ... The division was never over the condemnation of a dictatorship. ... Our differences concerned the way the world was to be managed, its crises and notably the crises of (arms) proliferation," said Chirac.

"What is at stake today is our capacity to give a solid foundation to a new world order," Chirac said. "No lasting international order can rest on a logic of power."

Putin called for international law and the United Nations to be revamped to enable them to play a more central role in crisis management.

He noted that "the world is changing and the system of international law must evolve and improve in consequence."

The shortcomings of present international mechanisms "may have serious consequences," he warned.

The summit's call for a central UN role in Iraq in the aftermath of the war is unlikely to cut much ice with Washington which, although promising the United Nations an undefined "vital role," has already determined that a retired US general, Jay Garner, will run Iraq's postwar interim administration.

After an initial phase expected to last at least six months, Garner would turn over the country's administration to an interim Iraqi authority made up of a broad spectrum of Iraqi political groups.

Putin Friday dismissed the notion that the Saint Petersburg summit would further fracture transatlantic relations, but some of his comments were less than conciliatory.

"We are not going to export capitalist, democratic revolutions," Putin said. "If we do, we're going to end up on a slippery slope to unending military conflicts. We can't let that happen."

The three leaders also discussed the Middle East peace process and North Korean crisis.

The summit had been planned as part of an annual Russo-German encounter, to which Putin invited Chirac last week.

Washington's chief ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, reportedly turned down a similar invitation, and UN chief Annan cancelled his attendance after initially announcing that he would take part.

Annan will now travel to Athens to attend the signature on Wednesday of an EU enlargement treaty between the 15-nation European Union and 10 new members, and a meeting of countries taking part in a European Conference the following day.

SPACE.WIRE