Zeina Khodr (Al Jazeera with agency inputs) - Britain and the United States seem to have different views on how a post-war Iraqi government will be run.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair made clear Iraq after Saddam Hussein should be governed by the Iraqis themselves.
"Iraq in the end should not be run by the Americans, should not be run by the British, should not be run by any outside force or power. It should be run for the first time in decades by the Iraqi people," Blair told parliament on Wednesday.
A very different picture from what US Secretary of State Colin Powell painted last week.
Washington, he said, had not taken on "this huge burden with our coalition partners not to be able to have a significant dominating control over how it unfolds in the future."
Now, Powell is in Europe where he will meet European Union and NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday.
Iraq's post-war reconstruction and government will top those discussions.
"I will talk to my colleagues in NATO and EU about the campaign and plans of reconstruction, plans of creating an interim authority," he said in Belgrade before flying to Brussels. "I want to hear ideas from them about reconstruction and contributions the EU will be able to make," he said.
A difficult and delicate task in light of European demands for the United Nations to take on a central role after the Iraq war.
Al Jazeera's correspondent in Brussels, Ahmed Kamel, said it is clear that London and Washington are drifting apart.
"Blair is realizing that he is in a quagmire. American assurances that the war will be easy and short are turning out to be false. Blair is under pressure and is now studying options with Europe on a way to get out of the crisis and put it in the hands of the United Nations," Kamel said.
But Blair, who is US President George W. Bush’s staunchest ally in the war against Iraq - denied they had fundamental differences, hinting instead at problems. "There will be difficulties as to when we make the transition to the Iraqi interim authority," he said.
Britain's Guardian newspaper said on Tuesday Washington was planning an interim Iraqi government consisting of 23 ministries, each of them headed by an American.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw did not confirm or deny that report, saying there was always speculation. The stumbling block appears to be how long US control would last after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is toppled.
"There is bound to be a situation of transition where the coalition forces are de facto in control," Blair said. "But our aim is to move as soon as possible to an Iraqi interim authority that will be run by Iraqis."
Russia and Germany
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany, which has been one of the strongest opponents of the war, said late Wednesday that he hoped the Iraqi government "will collapse as soon as possible."
Fischer, who made his comments before starting talks with Straw in London on post-war Iraq, appeared to be coming out in support of the war - a change in attitude also seen through comments made by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia does not want the United States to fail in its war in Iraq.
"For political and economic reasons, Russia is not interested in seeing the defeat of the United States in Iraq," the Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying.
"We are interested in bringing the Iraqi problem back to the United Nations," he added.
Russia has been one of the most outspoken opponents of the US-led war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and has urged a diplomatic solution to the crisis within the framework of the United Nations.
"The quicker this happens the better for all countries involved in the conflict," Putin said in Tambov, south of Moscow.
"The Russian foreign ministry will do everything in its power to bring the Iraqi question back into the framework of the United Nations," he said, quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency.
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