The decision to press for a resolution is based on fears that members of the US-led military coalition now administering Iraq may follow Spain's lead in withdrawing their troops without a specific UN peacekeeping mandate for an international force, officials said.

"Based on the discussions that we've had at a variety of levels over a period of time, we've come to the conclusion that there will be a new resolution as we move closer to July 1 and as the transfer of sovereignty comes closer" deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

The resolution, also strongly hinted at by Secretary of State Colin Powell in a German television interview, will also cover a variety of technical questions about Iraqi sovereignty after the dissolution of the US occupation administration, the Coalition Provisional Authority, he said.

Powell said earlier he expected that the United Nations would adopt a new resolution by the handover date.

"I think there will be a new resolution as we move closer to July 1," he told Germany's ZDF public television, noting that Spain's new Socialist government had made a stronger UN mandate a condition for its soldiers to stay in Iraq.

"They said they were going to withdraw their troops, the new prime minister did, in the absence of a UN resolution that gives the UN political control," Powell said.

"Well, let's see what kind of UN resolution may be emerging over the next several months," he said.

When the Socialist Party won the Spanish general election on March 14, Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero immediately announced Spain's 1,300 troops in Iraq would be recalled by June 30 unless the UN took over military operations in the oil-rich country.

Meanwhile, town leaders in troubled Fallujah denounced the gruesome murder of four American contractors here, as imams decided to devote Friday prayers to condemn such acts considered sins in Islam.

Police and paramilitary forces were deployed across Fallujah, setting up checkpoints at main entrances to the dusty town west of Baghdad, with many anticipating the harsh retaliation vowed by the US Army.