Blair plans historic UN address

Tony Blair is heading for New York to make an impassioned personal appeal to the United Nations to rally round over Iraq.

The Prime Minister has never before addressed the full UN but is considering the move in an effort to shore up international support for the 30 June handover of power.

His aim would be to mend fences with George Bush after leaked Cabinet papers revealed tensions between Britain and America - and to show voters at home he is on top of the crisis.

Downing Street made clear a new UN resolution, being circulated in draft form today, is seen as crucial to its twin-track strategy of defeating insurgents and helping an Iraqi government take over on 1 July. The Cabinet is due on Thursday to debate sending up to 3,000 more troops, but a final decision depends on the UN endorsing the handover strategy.

"We are going to see progress on both the political and the security fronts over the coming weeks," said Mr Blair's spokesman. "A UN resolution would highlight that we are entering a new phase coming up to the transfer of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government."

In America, President Bush was issuing the draft resolution which pledges to give Iraq full sovereignty. British officials made clear Iraq would have full control over oil revenues and could order the coalition forces

to leave if it chose to, although in practice they will stay under US control. The US President was also making a prime-time TV address to reassure voters that he has a clear plan to hand over power to Iraqis on 30 June.

The PR offensive follows the White House's worst weeks since the fall of Saddam, with spiralling violence and the Iraqi prisoner scandal undermining the morale of troops and the American public. Later this week UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is due to unveil the members of the new Iraqi government. American and British diplomats hope Mr Brahimi's plans will smooth the path of today's fresh resolution when it comes before the UN Security Council for formal approval later this month.

The resolution also grants US and British troops immunity from international prosecution following the handover.

At the Army War College in Pennsylvania, Mr Bush was making the first of six major speeches before the handover. He was expected to say there would be no "cutting and running" but to stress that Iraqi democracy was the only way forward.

But while Britain gave the US-backed resolution its full support, a Foreign Office memo criticised "heavy-handed tactics" by US troops in Fallujah and Najaf. And even as Mr Bush was preparing for peace, US forces killed at least 32 fighters loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in a mosque in the holy city of Kufa yesterday.