United Nations ? The U.N. Security Council gave resounding approval Tuesday to a resolution endorsing the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq’s new government by the end of June. President Bush said the measure would set the stage for democracy in Iraq and be a “catalyst for change” in the Middle East.

The unanimous 15-0 vote came after a last-minute compromise allowed France and Germany to drop their objections to the U.S.-British resolution, which underwent four revisions over two weeks of tough negotiations. Diplomats on the council, which was deeply divided over going to war against Iraq, welcomed the Americans’ flexibility.

The compromise gives Iraqi leaders control over the activities of their own fledgling security forces and a say on “sensitive offensive operations” by the U.S.-led multinational force — such as the controversial siege of Fallujah. But the measure stops short of granting the Iraqis a veto over major U.S.-led military operations as France and Germany wanted.

France’s U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said, however, that “France cannot imagine that the multinational force would go against the opinion of Iraq’s sovereign government.”

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the vote showed the council’s willingness to come together after last year’s divisions to help the Iraqi people “take charge of their own political destiny.”

“Obviously we are not there yet. Free and fair elections … will be a historic milestone,” he said, but security must improve for voting to take place by January 2005.

The resolution spells out the powers and the limitations of the new interim Iraqi government that will assume power on June 30. It authorizes the multinational force to remain in Iraq to help ensure security but gives the Iraqi government the right to ask the force to leave at any time.

Bush claimed victory even before the vote, telling reporters at the Group of Eight summit in Sea Island, Ga., that unanimous approval would tell the world that the council nations “are interested in working together to make sure Iraq is free, peaceful and democratic.”

“These nations understand that a free Iraq will serve as a catalyst for change in the broader Middle East, which is an important part of winning the war on terror,” Bush said.

Despite the vote, Bush lowered expectations of gaining other countries’ military support — one of the original hopes behind the resolution. Four members of the Group of Eight summit — France, Germany, Russia and Canada — have said they wouldn’t send troops to take the burden off the 138,000 American soldiers and the 24,000 troops from coalition partners.

Nevertheless, the adoption of the resolution will likely buy time for the new Iraqi government, boosting its international stature as it struggles to win acceptance and cope with a security crisis at home.

The interim government — put together by a U.N. envoy, the Americans and their Iraqi allies — hopes the vote will give it a legitimacy that eluded its predecessor, the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. That legitimacy would put it in a better position to curry support among fellow Arab regimes and seek economic help from abroad.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, speaking in New York at the Council on Foreign Relations, predicted it would have a “positive impact” on security by removing the perception of the U.S.-led multinational force as an occupying power.

“We have done our part and I believe the international community has done its part today,” said Feisel Istrabadi, legal adviser to Iraq’s Foreign Ministry who represented Iraq at the council meeting. “The Iraqis are committed to the rebuilding of their country and further committed that tyranny again will not again revisit them. We would welcome the international community’s help.”