resolution on troop reinforcements in Iraq would be difficult to reach unless Washington eased its opposition to ceding any control over the operation.

Claims also surfaced that the UN had spurned a US offer of greater protection for the UN headquarters in the Iraqi capital bombed on Tuesday, "The Americans knew that there was a threat against the UN — a serious threat. They proposed to reinforce the security network around the Canal Hotel," a European diplomat said yesterday. "And the proposal was turned down by a UN officer."

In Baghdad, both UN and US officials have acknowledged that investigators suspect the bombers had inside help from Iraqi guards in carrying out the attack, which killed 25 and left more than 100 wounded. "They clearly had support from Iraqi security guards inside who gave intelligence to the planners of the attack," one UN official said.

Two bodyguards of Vieira de Mello — Gabriel Pichon and Alain Chergeui — also said in a report published by the French newspaper Le Monde that the people who plotted the attack probably had inside help. Kofi Annan conceded that mistakes were made by all before the attack but pointed the finger at coalition forces for failing to provide enough security in Baghdad and the rest of Iraq. But even UN officials acknowledged yesterday that security at the Baghdad compound had been fatally compromised.

Yesterday, yet another shadowy group calling itself Fukat Al-Madinah Al-Munawwara, or Madinah Faction, surfaced on Lebanon's LBCI satellite television TV station claiming it had captured two US soldiers in Iraq. This previously unknown Islamist group, showed what it said were photocopies of the military identity cards of Katherine V. Rose and Andrew Peters. The group claimed they had been captured in a clash in which two other US soldiers were wounded. But a US defense official in Washington, who asked not to be identified, said the two soldiers had been accounted for.