Peter Burleigh

Russia on Friday proposed dismantling the U.N. weapons inspection program in Iraq and replacing it with a less aggressive organization under the tight control of the Security Council. The United States quickly rejected the plan. "Eventually, down the road, there is a need for a [new] monitoring system. But in the short term and the medium term, we reject the proposal," said Peter Burleigh, the U.S. representative to the U.N.

The Security Council on Friday extended Iraq's "oil-for-food" program for six months and set the stage to suspend sanctions if Saddam Hussein's regime allows U.N. weapons inspectors back into the country. The moves are part of a yearlong effort to revive a U.N. program ensuring that Baghdad eliminates all weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. The Security Council ordered Iraq to disarm after the 1991 Persian Gulf War and has maintained an embargo until it does. But U.N.

The United States asked the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to impose strict sanctions on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers until they turn over Islamic extremist Osama bin Laden, charged with plotting the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people last year.

The Security Council remained paralyzed Tuesday in its effort to force Iraq to resume cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors as it became clear that the latest confrontation with Baghdad has evolved into a waiting game, with each side gambling that it can outlast its adversary.

Sudan generated little support in the Security Council on Monday for its demand that the United Nations investigate the U.S. missile attack last week that destroyed an alleged chemical weapons factory in the Sudanese capital. The council put off a request by the Sudanese government, backed by the Arab League and the Group of Islamic States at the United Nations, for an urgent meeting to condemn the attack and launch an inquiry into U.S.

The Senate confirmed veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke as America's chief representative at the United Nations on Thursday after a 14-month delay that had come to symbolize the sulfurous animosity between the White House and Capitol Hill.

The Clinton administration on Thursday stood firmly behind career diplomat Richard C. Holbrooke and his stalled nomination as ambassador to the United Nations, despite new charges that he violated federal conflict-of-interest laws in his private business dealings. President Clinton, calling Holbrooke "a man of tremendous intellect and character," affirmed he "is standing behind Ambassador Holbrooke lock, stock and barrel," said National Security Council spokesman David Leavy.

The U.N. Security Council sent a new warning Thursday to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic over reported atrocities in Kosovo, and White House National Security Advisor Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger indicated that U.S. and other NATO aircraft could strike targets in the breakaway Serbian province in a matter of days. In Washington, Berger said the U.S. could begin assigning aircraft to participate in airstrikes as soon as today.

The U.S.-British bombing of Iraq last month may have killed several top Iraqi government figures, Pentagon officials said Friday as they ordered more warplanes to the Persian Gulf to meet a growing threat from what they called a "shaken" and "desperate" President Saddam Hussein. Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the bombing hit "several key individuals in the upper structure" of Hussein's regime. In a separate briefing, Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, the U.S.

A senior Iraqi official said Monday that a four-day air offensive by the United States and Britain destroyed two factories making parts for Iraq's short-range missile program and killed 62 military personnel, plus a "much, much higher" number of civilians. Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz gave his government's first detailed account of military losses at an evening news conference, ridiculing U.S.