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Poland Says Needs UN Mandate for Iraq Peace Force http://tinyurl.com/b4ly Tue May 6, 2003 01:02 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Poland said on Tuesday it would need a U.N. Security Council mandate to take part in a proposed peacekeeping mission in Iraq. "We believe that we need that kind of resolution. I understand that in days ahead there will be some initiatives opening the way to have such a resolution," Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said after talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell. Poland has proposed to the United States that its soldiers team up with German and Danish troops to keep the peace in one region of postwar Iraq, Polish officials said on Tuesday. Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski, in Washington for talks on setting up an Iraq "stabilization force," said such a unit could be based on a joint Polish-German-Danish NATO corps now stationed in northwestern Poland skip Cimoszewicz discussed the proposal with Powell and told reporters that Poland wanted as many European countries as possible to take part in the stabilization force. "We would like to have as many European partners as possible to work together with us. To a great extent our common success will depend on that," he said. "If that is done, we can start our task with all of the European potential partners, of course including Germans." The minister said he was not singling out Germany as a partner and there were many other willing governments. Powell said the United States had good discussions with Poland but did not mention a possible U.N. resolution. Berlin, an opponent of the U.S.-led war that toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, was surprised by the Polish proposal but Defense Minister Peter Struck would discuss it with European colleagues, his spokesman said in Berlin. German newspapers have been blunter, with one dubbing Poland America's "Trojan ass" and another accusing Warsaw of supplying the United States with mercenaries. pg _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk