The UN Security Council has begun discussion of a draft resolution which would lift sanctions against Iraq and put its economy under US control for a year.
The US-backed draft also proposes cutting the proportion of Iraq's oil sales set aside to compensate Kuwait for the 1990 invasion from 25% to 5%.
Anti-war council members including France and Russia were expected to challenge some of the draft's proposals.
Britain's ambassador to the UN, Jeremy Greenstock, said the initial discussions in the Security Council had taken place 'in a constructive atmosphere' and he had sensed a 'wish to look forward, not back' among council members.
But the resolution in effect relegates the UN and other international institutions to an advisory board that audits how the oil money was spent.
It would be held by the Iraqi Central Bank, currently managed by Peter McPherson, a former deputy US Treasury secretary.
An advisory board, consisting of the UN Secretary General, the World Bank, IMF and others, would audit the fund.
The documents would phase out the existing UN oil-for-food humanitarian program over four months.
The US is hoping to pass the resolution without the diplomatic tension caused by their second resolution on Iraq.
But going into the meeting, the Russian Ambassador said he would have lots of questions for John Negroponte, his American counterpart.
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Paris would play a constructive role.
He issued a statement repeating France's demand that the United Nations play a central role in postwar Iraq, but he did not define that role.
