The countries that opposed the US-led war on Iraq -- France, Russia and Germany -- are now insisting that the United Nations should run post-war Iraq.

But experts said the United Nations does not have the means to run a country like Iraq but could help give needed legitimacy to a new government.

David Malone, president of the International Peace Academy, a group close to the United Nations which studies ways to end conflict, said the United Nations could aim for a role similar to the one it had in Afghanistan rather than the central managerial duties it had in Kosovo and East Timor.

UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi organised a conference in Bonn which created the broad consensus among Afghanistan's rival groups to get behind Hamid Karzai as its leader.

It also helped set up a government, while security is still being assured by an international force and the US military pursues its war on terrorism there.

US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who failed to secure UN backing for their war, this week promised a "vital role" for the United Nations in Iraq.

But they pointedly did not say what it would be. And the US administration appears divided between the internationalist Secretary of State Colin Powell and hawkish Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on how to get the United Nations involved.

"Washington was scalded by the UN Security Council and it won't go back until it is sure that it will get some cooperation," said Malone, a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations.

On top of its humanitarian expertise, the United Nations could also "take part in the preparation of a national dialogue to allow the emergence of a legitimate and credible Iraqi regime," said Malone.

"No other organisation can take the place of the UN in this," he added.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan also emphasised this week that UN "legitimacy" was "necessary for the country, for the region and for the peoples around the world."

UN Development Programme administrator Mark Malloch-Brown has also warned that Iraq will need a government with international authority sooner than the United States thinks to reassure investors.

And Malone of the International Peace Academy said that it would be difficult for bodies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund "to give credits to a government that has no legal authority to commit to the future of Iraq."

Malloch-Brown and Malone emphasised that oil companies and others likely to invest in Iraq think long term and will not sign contracts unless there are international guarantees.

"Maybe people in Washington have not seen this corner yet but they will have to realize it," said Malloch-Brown, who warned that a US attempt to promote an Iraqi government would lack credibility with Arab and other governments.

Malone said however that the United Nations could hope for a major role in reconstruction. "The UN does not have special experience and it is not an area where it has shone, given the heavy bureaucratic procedures," he commented.

SPACE.WIRE