United Nations ? The foreign ministers of France, Russia and Germany said Wednesday they would support a U.N. Security Council resolution lifting more than a decade of international sanctions on Iraq, clearing the way for approval of the measure and providing the Bush administration a major diplomatic victory.

The Security Council is poised to adopt the resolution as early as today, granting the United States and Britain broad control over the country’s economy and its budding political process until an internationally recognized Iraq government is in place.

Meeting in Paris, the French, Russian and German foreign ministers, whose countries led opposition to the war, announced they would support U.S. postwar plans despite reservations about what they view as the limited U.N. involvement in shaping the country’s political and economic future.

“Even if this text does not go as far as we would like, we have decided to vote for this resolution,” French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters at a news conference with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. “This is because we have chosen the path of unity of the international community.”

The announcement assured that the resolution would pass easily. Only Syria, the lone Arab country on the council, has indicated it may not vote for the resolution, insisting it needs more time to consider the text.