Blair predicts UN support

America and Britain were poised to finally win UN backing for their blueprint for a new Iraq today after concessions were made giving local leaders more control over coalition troops.

Tony Blair flew into the US for the G8 summit of world leaders claiming he was "reasonably confident" of a new resolution being passed by the United Nations Security Council.

In an interview with the BBC, the Prime Minister defended security services against allegations that they made mistakes in the run-up to war in Iraq. Mr Blair said he was confident the M16 assessment Saddam Hussein was developing programmes for weapons of mass destruction would be proven by the Iraq Survey Group when it reports in a few months time.

The long-awaited breakthrough at the UN was likely today after Britain and the US agreed to French demands for a reworking of the resolution on Iraq's future. In a crucial move, the coalition has produced a new draft making it explicit that the interim Iraqi government would be consulted about sensitive offensive military operations.

The draft transforms the status of coalition troops into a " multinational force" and makes clear they will pull out of Iraq when a constitution is in place by the end of next year. Elections will take place in January next year.

No 10 has long believed that it can finally draw a line under the Iraq issue once it has won the UN's stamp of approval.

The White House had not wanted to hand total control over US troops to the new government set to be handed leadership of Iraq after 30 June. It offered to deal with the issue in an exchange of letters between US and Iraqi officials.

But Algeria, currently on the Security Council, led the fight to insist the UN resolution should promise the new leaders would be "consulted" in any large-scale military operation. The US was savaged by critics for its heavy handed tactics in the siege of Fallujah last month.

The American ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, today said that he expected unanimous backing for the new resolution The White House is bound to reassure the US public that it has not given the Iraqis a full veto over its troops' operations.

The French government said today that there was "movement in the right direction".