Wednesday's unanimous adoption by the United Nations' Security Council of the US-British resolution on Iraq sent a message to the world that the international community supports the transfer of full sovereignty to Iraq's new interim government and an end to the formal military occupation of Iraq by the end of June.

As a return to stability in the war-torn country is imperative to the world body, approval of the resolution is encouraging, though fraught with compromises between its sponsors and opponents.

Hopefully the resolution will serve as a good start to revive Iraq's sluggish post-war reconstruction.

Adoption of the resolution also gives legitimacy to the new caretaker government and boosts its international stature as it struggles to win acceptance and cope with a security crisis at home.

Mending the rift within the UN can prevent this international organization, which was bypassed by the US on the road to war, from being further marginalized.

The resolution stipulates the US-led multinational force, now 160,000 troops, is empowered to use "all necessary measures in partnership with Iraqi forces to bring peace."

The compromise gives Iraqi leaders symbolic control over the nation's security arrangement since they are only granted a say on "sensitive offensive operations" by the US-led multinational force - such as the controversial siege of Falluja.

The deal stops short of granting the Iraqis veto power over major US-led military operations.

Although the resolution says the interim government will have authority to ask the force to leave, new Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi indicated in a letter to US Secretary of State Colin Powell that the force will remain at least until an elected transitional government takes power early next year.

The United States therefore gained its much-needed UN support for its extended stay in Iraq.

By obtaining the UN mandate, Washington circumvents being relegated to a legal no man's land with regard to Iraq's reconstruction.

History cannot be undone, but this does not mean what happened in the past will become justified with the passage of time.

The US still owes the world an explanation regarding the absence of weapons of mass destruction -- the excuse Washington used to justify invading a sovereign state without UN sanction.

The US-led invasion of Iraq, from the very first salvo, set a bad precedent that a powerful nation can wage war against another sovereign state on little more than a whim.

Though approval of the resolution demonstrates that the UN's role in dealing with international affairs cannot be ignored, a rocky road remains for the UN to restore its authority by giving the Iraqis a peaceful, stable and self-governed country and playing a part in safeguarding the international rule of law.

(China Daily June 10, 2004)