Jeremy Greenstock

In the intricate art of diplomacy, Britain has taken a page from a more street-level realm of persuasion: playing good cop to the United States' bad cop. The diplomat with that delicate brief here is Jeremy Greenstock, an ambassador of the old-school, pinstriped-pants variety who began his career 33 years ago in the Middle East and may retire this year still dealing with the region's complications--particularly Iraq. In the effort to get the U.N.

Britain on Monday named its U.N. ambassador, Jeremy Greenstock, as the country's special representative to Iraq, starting in September. Greenstock will work alongside U.S. civil administrator L. Paul Bremer III, and is expected to press the U.S. to allow a greater U.N. role in rebuilding the Mideast nation, British diplomats said.

Britain on Monday named its U.N. ambassador, Jeremy Greenstock, as the country's special representative to Iraq, starting in September. Greenstock will work alongside U.S. civil administrator L. Paul Bremer III, and is expected to press the U.S. to allow a greater U.N. role in rebuilding the Mideast nation, British diplomats said.

In the intricate art of diplomacy, Britain has taken a page from a more street-level realm of persuasion: playing good cop to the United States' bad cop. The diplomat with that delicate brief here is Jeremy Greenstock, an ambassador of the old-school, pinstriped-pants variety who began his career 33 years ago in the Middle East and may retire this year still dealing with the region's complications--particularly Iraq. In the effort to get the U.N.

Insurgents detonated a bomb alongside a U.S. military convoy west of Baghdad on Friday, killing one soldier and wounding two others, the military said. The attack occurred in Ramadi, about 60 miles west of the Iraqi capital, U.S. Central Command said. The names of the casualties were withheld pending notification of relatives. In another bomb attack, an explosive made from a land mine went off near the southern city of Mahaweel as a Polish convoy drove by, wounding two soldiers.

Indonesia has set out a timetable for disarming gangs terrorizing East Timorese refugees, aid workers and U.N. peacekeepers, but it has rejected a Security Council mission to Jakarta to discuss the crisis. Gen.

Shells and rockets pounded Liberia's capital on Wednesday as rebels pressed their three-year war to oust President Charles Taylor, wounding hundreds and leaving thousands of others cowering in the city without escape. With rebels on three sides of the city and the Atlantic surf pounding the other, Taylor took to the airwaves and pledged to live or die with his troops. The U.S.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Security Council on Friday that he is "still reasonably optimistic" that Libya will hand over two suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. "We are now at a critical and delicate state, and I hope we will not have much to go," Annan said as council members, most notably the United States and Britain, expressed frustration at the pace of progress in a plan to turn over the two men for trial in the Netherlands.

The Security Council imposed an embargo Wednesday on Liberia's trade in weapons and diamonds in an effort to halt the country's arms-for-gems support for rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone. The weapons ban is an extension of an embargo put in place in 1992 during Liberia's civil war.

Opening the door to potential military intervention by the United States and its European allies, the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday adopted a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the separatist Serbian province of Kosovo. The measure was adopted on the second day of a new offensive by Serbian forces in Kosovo that the U.N. says has added 6,000 more refugees to the more than 270,000 people already displaced in the region. U.N.

The Security Council decided Friday to let Iraq spend more money to repair its oil industry--an investment intended to boost the amount of food and medicine Baghdad can buy through a U.N. humanitarian relief program. Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Mohammed Rashid Ubaydi welcomed the decision, which he called a victory for Iraq. "When good insists, . . . evil backs down," he said, speaking in Baghdad before the vote. All 15 ambassadors voted in favor of the U.S.-sponsored resolution without comment.

A new Security Council policy toward Iraq is beginning to emerge from the wreckage of diplomacy left in the wake of the U.S.-British bombings last month, diplomats said Friday. Support among council members is building for a dual approach: separate meetings of technical experts to assess the status of Iraq's disarmament and the humanitarian needs of its citizens. What's needed, diplomats said, is a foundation for any future modification of the U.N.