[Map shows site of attack by US and British warplanes that caused the deaths of 23 Iraqis and the injury of many others in an air strike on the Talafar district near the northern city of Mosul].


UNITED NATIONS, (AFP) - The United Nations will this week hold a series of key meetings aimed at deciding the outcome of a US-British proposal to impose "smart sanctions" on Iraq, according to diplomats.

For the first time, 15 members of the Security Council will hold a public debate Tuesday with non-council members on UN policy toward Iraq, allowing the nation's neighbors to give their own opinion of the proposal.

Experts from the five permanent council members -- China, the United States, France, Britain and Russia -- will also meet for two days Tuesday and Wednesday, in an attempt to reach agreement over the main stumbling block: putting together a list of civil- and military-use technology and equipment that Iraq may not freely import.

The UN Security Council has given itself until July 3 to reach agreement on the resolution, which seeks to ease sanctions against Iraq, facilitating imports of commercial goods but also putting an end to oil contraband by imposing strict control measures on Iraq's neighbors.

June 1 was set as the target date for agreement following the Security Council's move to extend its humanitarian "oil-for-food" program by just one month, instead of the usual six months, in order to discuss amending the sanctions.

In reprisal, Iraq interrupted all of its UN-supervised oil exports, equivalent to 2.3 million barrels of oil per day.

So, with broad disagreement existing between the United States and Russia, the latter being Iraq's main ally, the likelihood of reaching agreement before July 3 was considered slim.

While Russia and China want to reduce the proposed list to goods used in fabrication of weapons of mass destruction, the United States wants it extended to include conventional weapons.

France, however, has sought to offer a solution by proposing a list of goods only seven pages long -- a quarter of the number that the US proposal involved.

According to one diplomat, "important progress" was made by Paris and Washington, but no accord has been reached on the matter.

US, British and French diplomats pursued their negotiations on the main text of the resolution. The main disagreement has been in relation to the French proposal to not only free up trade with Iraq but also to build up its devastated economy by authorizing investments and services.

Russia, meanwhile, called for the council debate in a bid to escape from its isolation "by showing that Iraq's neighbors had also experienced difficulties" with the US project, a diplomat said.

Those countries -- Jordan, Syria and Turkey -- are hostile to the project, which would be a severe blow to their fragile economies. In mid-June, during UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's visit to the Middle East, they called on him to bring the matter before the Security Council.

Experts say Iraq's three neighbors receive some 300 million to 600 million dollars per year in direct exchanges with Iraq carried out outside UN control.

Those nations are also Washington's strategic allies and therefore find themselves torn between two positions, according to one diplomat.

However, Egypt's decision not to speak before the Security Council on Tuesday will add to their embarrassment, diplomats said.