Geneva ? The United States and France failed to resolve deep differences over the future of Iraq at a summit Saturday called to prepare the way for a new U.N. resolution that the Bush administration hopes will encourage more countries to assist with the U.S.-led reconstruction effort.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, antagonists in the acrimonious debate before the Iraq war, left the conference still split about a timetable for handing over authority to an Iraqi government and the role the United Nations should play in shepherding the transfer of power.

But Powell said afterward that there had been “some narrowing” of differences — although he refused to be more specific — and added that diplomats would continue talks this week in New York.

A senior State Department official said the United States this time did not “smell a veto” by France or any of the other permanent members of the Security Council. Villepin sidestepped a question about a potential French veto when asked at a news conference after the meeting of foreign ministers from the five veto-wielding members of the council.

While in Geneva, Powell announced he would journey on to Iraq for his first visit to the country since Saddam Hussein’s ouster. He is to arrive today in Baghdad.

The White House is seeking a Security Council resolution to assist President Bush’s efforts to win greater foreign financial and military support for the occupation.

U.S. forces face unrelenting guerrilla assaults, at a pace averaging more than a dozen attacks a day. And recent bombings of the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, the U.N. mission there and a sacred Shiite shrine in Najaf underscore the difficulty the occupation force has in securing the country.

Although more than two dozen nations have joined the U.S. coalition in Iraq, so far few have offered major resources other than Britain. Bush administration officials hope a U.N. resolution signaling a new international consensus on the Iraqi reconstruction would loosen the purse strings of foreign financial donors, although the prospects that more countries would provide large numbers of troops is uncertain.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan convened the summit in Geneva to try to head off a repeat of the clash on the council before the Iraq war, which divided France, Germany and Russia from the United States and its coalition partner, Britain.

U.N. Security Council members, from left, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanonv, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met Saturday to discuss the future of U.N. efforts in Iraq.