UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan questioned on Thursday whether the new U.S.-draft resolution on Iraq was enough to change attitudes toward the United Nations and other international bodies in the country.

Trying to win over skeptics, the United States revised a U.N. Security Council resolution that emphasizes a step-by-step transfer of power to Iraqis but gives no timetable for the end of the occupation.

"We are studying it. We will have to determine whether it is a radical change from the past, or what it is," Annan told reporters. "Obviously it's not going in the direction I had recommended but I will still have to study it further."

After the Aug. 19 bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed 22 people, Annan told council ambassadors he wanted a new "radical" approach that would make it safe enough for U.N. staff to return, U.N. officials said. Only about 30 foreign staff out of more than 600 are still in the country.

The new U.S. draft strengthens duties of the United Nations but does not give the world body an independent role in overseeing the transition to sovereignty as many wanted.

The main purpose of the new resolution, as in earlier drafts, is to transform the military operation into a U.N.-authorized multinational force under American command.

This provision is aimed at attracting more contributions from nations wary of sending soldiers as part of an occupation force, although volunteers appear to be scarce.

France had wanted an immediate symbolic handover of sovereignty to Iraq while Russia has advocated that the United Nations be given a date to formulate a timetable.

Russia's U.N. ambassador, Sergei Lavrov said, "We believe that at this stage we should give the United Nations the leading role in the political process, to work with all Iraqis, to develop a timetable which should be clear, which would be leading to the full restoration of sovereignty and that this process could be supported by a multinational force."

"That is the essence of the position and against this position we would be looking at the American draft," told reporters.

CHANGING PERCEPTIONS

Annan and other U.N. officials have said that one way to change perceptions on the ground would be to turn over power to a provisional Iraq government within three to five months.

"What we want is a sovereign provisional government as soon as possible so we can work in Iraq like we do in other countries instead of being asked to be part of military occupation," one senior U.N. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Bush administration wants the resolution adopted before an Oct. 23-24 donors conference in Madrid on rebuilding Iraq, which international institutions say will cost more than $35 billion.

No Security Council members has threatened to veto the resolution but France has said it might abstain.

The 25-member Iraqi Governing Council, appointed by the United States, would provide a timetable and program for drafting a new constitution and for elections, in cooperation with the occupation authorities and the United Nations.

The United Nations would help, if asked by Iraqi leaders, to establish an electoral process along with "advancing efforts to restore and establish national and local institutions for representative government," the draft says.

To meet some objections, the text speaks of the "temporary nature" of the U.S.-led occupation "until an internationally recognized, representative government is established."

It says that the administration of Iraq will be "progressively undertaken by the evolving structures of the Iraqi interim administration.

"The day when Iraqis govern themselves must come quickly," the preamble of the draft says.

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte presented the draft on Thursday to the full 15-member Security Council.

In Berlin, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the resolution was a step in the right direction. But another senior German official said the document still needed work.

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