Baghdad, Iraq ? Rebels killed a U.S. soldier in the first fatal ambush for the U.S. military since the capture of Saddam Hussein last weekend. Also in the Iraqi capital, Shiites buried an assassinated politician Thursday after a sneak attack blamed on Saddam loyalists.

The American soldier was killed late Wednesday when a 1st Armored Division patrol came under fire in northwest Baghdad, the military said. A second soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were wounded.

In New York, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for a meeting to discuss what role the U.N. might play when Iraq transitions away from U.S. occupation. Meanwhile, Moscow signaled its willingness to start negotiations to forgive Iraq’s $8 billion debt to Russia and Japan will send 1,000 troops to southern Iraq.

The American’s death brings to 314 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat since the war began March 20. There have been 199 soldiers killed in hostile action since President Bush declared the end of major combat on May 1. Some 144 soldiers have died of nonhostile causes, according to the Pentagon.

At a briefing Thursday, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said there had been 24 engagements with guerrillas in the previous 24 hours. He said attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces were fewer than last month, though attacks on Iraqi civilians and security forces had increased.

On Thursday, Annan called for a Jan. 15 meeting of the major players in Iraq to discuss what role the United Nations will play.

Frustrated that the Iraqi Governing Council and the U.S.-led coalition running the country have not given him specific answers, Annan said it was time to sit down with representatives from both bodies.

“It has to be a three-way conversation,” the secretary-general said. “Once we have that, I will make a judgment.”

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi approved a plan to send 1,000 troops to southern Iraq — Japan’s first military deployment to a combat zone since World War II.

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia was willing to start negotiations on forgiving Iraq’s $8 billion debt to Moscow, its largest creditor. Russia “expressed its readiness to in the near future start negotiations on settling the debt within the framework of the Paris Club with the goal of relieving Iraq’s debt burden,” according to a Kremlin statement.

In Baghdad residents snapped up copies of an Iraqi newspaper with a front-page photo of Saddam sitting in his jail cell with one of his longtime opponents, Ahmad Chalabi, a member of Iraq’s American-picked Governing Council and once a Pentagon favorite to succeed Saddam.