United Nations ? If Secretary of State Colin Powell wants a unanimous Security Council vote to lift sanctions against Iraq, the United States will have to make major concessions to Russia, China and France — giving the United Nations a bigger role in postwar Iraq.

The Bush administration is pressing for a vote next week on a resolution ending the punitive economic embargo, legitimizing the U.S. and British control of Iraq, and handing U.N. control of Iraq’s oil wealth to the victorious allies who toppled Saddam Hussein.

“We want to get 15-0 in the Security Council,” Powell said Thursday.

But Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov told the Interfax news agency after meeting China’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yang Wenchang on Friday that both countries “believe that provisions in this draft resolution require serious amendments.”

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Paris was also pushing for changes in the resolution, including a larger U.N. role in Iraq’s reconstruction. “We are proposing a number of modifications, of amendments, that will make it most effective,” he said.

Despite the serious differences about U.S. plans for postwar Iraq, there has been no talk in the council about a veto.

By most counts, the United States already has the minimum nine “yes” votes needed to pass the resolution. But Washington, London and other key members have stressed the importance of getting unity in the battered council.