With the Bush administration signaling for the first time it might agree to a UN-sponsored multinational force in Iraq, the United States and Britain intend to explore a new UN resolution to encourage nations to send troops."You may well start to see ideas on paper next week," said one Security Council diplomat. Another said there was a push to get something adopted before the mid-September annual General Assembly parade of world leaders while Britain was still president of the 15-member Security Council.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in an interview with regional media released on Wednesday, said a concept under consideration was a multinational force under the sponsorship of the United Nations but "the American would be the UN commander.""That's one idea that's being explored. And others just started talking about widening decision-making. (We) haven't finished our deliberations. We've got a ways to go," Armitage said.

The suggestion was made public last week by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who said the Security Council could approve a new multinational force, led by the United States as the largest troop contributor.

Such a force would be authorized but not organized by the United Nations as a blue-helmeted peacekeeping operation, Annan said after conferring with Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

In practice it would mean officers from more countries in command headquarters, now dominated by the United States and Britain. Middle East nations, India, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and others have insisted on a UN mandate before they would send soldiers.

Without a new UN resolution, help for the 150,000-strong US military looks doubtful. Currently, about 21,000 non-American troops are in Iraq, 11,000 of them British.

But it is unclear whether such a resolution would be enough for France, Germany and Russia, all council members who opposed the war, or whether the concept is acceptable to the Pentagon, which has insisted on US control of the military operation.

Meanwhile, France called on Thursday for a change of policy direction in Iraq, with the United States handing security over to a United Nations-mandated multilateral force and political power to an Iraqi provisional government.

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, speaking a day after Washington indicated it could consider a UN-sponsored force, said France wanted "a real international force" but did not say exactly what that meant.