BAGHDAD - The murder of a U.S.-backed Iraqi leader, a bombing at a Baghdad hotel and an attack on U.S. soldiers deepened Washington's troubles on Thursday as it tried to enlist the world's help to rebuild Iraq.

Concern over security led the United Nations to announce it was scaling back its international staff, dealing a fresh blow to U.S. claims the situation was under control in Iraq. U.N. offices in Baghdad have twice come under attack.

But in New York, Secretary of State Colin Powell was upbeat about a new Security Council resolution on rebuilding Iraq, saying major powers were moving closer.

"I am pleased, and I think my colleagues on the P5 are pleased, that we have seen some convergence of views with respect to the new resolution," Powell told reporters after lunch at U.N. headquarters with foreign ministers of the other four permanent Security Council members -- Russia, China, France and Britain.

In what was another black day for U.S.-led occupying forces and their Iraqi supporters, Akila al-Hashemi, one of three women on Washington's handpicked Iraqi Governing Council, died from wounds suffered in an gun attack five days ago.

"Today the people of Iraq have lost a courageous champion and pioneer for the cause of freedom and democracy," the U.S. governor of Iraq, Paul Bremer, said in a statement.

Powell also paid tribute Hashemi: "She gave her life so that they (the Iraqi people) could have a better future."

"Those who murdered her were attacking the efforts to create a peaceful, democratic, modern Iraq," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "They must and will not be allowed to succeed."

Eight soldiers were wounded, three seriously, when their convoy came under attack in the northern city of Mosul, and a Somalian security guard was killed at the Baghdad hotel housing journalists from U.S. television network NBC.

Guerrillas opposed to the U.S.-led occupation have targeted Westerners, Iraqis cooperating with Bremer's administration, U.S. and British soldiers. They have also tried to sabotage the sprawling infrastructure of a country which holds the second largest oil reserves in the world.

Guerrilla attacks have killed 79 U.S. soldiers in Iraq since Washington declared major combat over on May 1. Many more have been wounded.

U.N. SECURITY WORRIES

U.N. Fred Eckhard said 42 international staff remained in Baghdad and 44 in northern Iraq, down from about a hundred, numbers he expected to "shrink further over the next few days."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has agonized over security since a suicide bombing of U.N. Baghdad headquarters last month killed 22 people, including mission head Sergio Vieira de Mello.

U.N. sources said they could not rule out an eventual reduction of staff to as few as one or two international staff.

The decision was a clear setback to Bush's efforts to expand the U.N. role in Iraqi reconstruction in order to persuade more nations to contribute cash and troops.

The White House responded quickly by saying the United Nations still had a vital role to play in Iraq.

Thursday's attacks occurred ahead of a report expected to lay open Bush to further criticism over his main justification for launching the invasion of Iraq in the face of objections from traditional allies, France and Germany, and of Russia.

A senior U.S. official said the eagerly awaited U.S. report was expected to say there was no proof Iraq had chemical or biological weapons.

Such a report would provide powerful ammunition for the rising number of critics to attack Bush and his closest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, over their decision to invade Iraq on the premise that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction posed an imminent threat.

U.S. forces have been searching for such weapons in Iraq for more than five months. None have so far been found.

France and Germany want a swifter handover of power to Iraqis as a condition for supporting Washington's efforts. The United States says it would be rash to hurry the process.

In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin avoided the Iraqi dispute, focusing on the need for tougher action to fight terror acts, whether they are in Baghdad or Russia's rebel Chechnya.

Some Governing Council members have also pressed for a quick return to Iraqi self-rule. Members of Iraq's delegation at the United Nations denied any rift with the United States, but said they hoped a new constitution could be ready by May, paving the way for democratic elections and self-government.

Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited.

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