IRAQ - June 3 - Bremer Says There Will Be UN Role.

Chief US administrator Paul Bremer meets with new UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, and they vow to work together "to create a democratic, independent and peaceful Iraq". Bremer says: "We have a very good sense of mutual mission". Vieira de Mello agrees, saying: "We share the same goal, which is to empower the free people of Iraq as soon as possible". Bremer says the UN has a vital role to play but the contours of that role remain to be worked out. (The US successfully has sought to limit the UN mission to humanitarian work). But Vieira de Mello emphasised an expansive view of the UN role. "We have a large humanitarian presence here doing important work with the full support of the CPA", he said, adding: "We are now broadening into other areas, political, reconstruction". He shrugged off reporters' suggestions that, with a 4-month mission and no executive power, his work would depend heavily on the US-led administration. But protests against the US occupation continued, along with attacks on US soldiers. And in another acknowledgment that the occupation was not going as smoothly as hoped by the US, a former US secretary of the army, Thomas White, said in an interview that the Pentagon appeared unwilling to admit that it would need a large, long-term presence in Iraq. He said: "It's almost a question of people not wanting to fess up to the notion that we will be there a long time, and they might have to set up a rotation and sustain it for the long term". White, who stepped down last month after differences with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made his statement in an interview with USA Today. He said the Pentagon would need more than 100,000 troops in Iraq for at least the next year.