Geneva, Sept 13: US Secretary of State Colin Powell will go to Baghdad after his talks in Geneva with foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the state department said today. Powell will travel to Kuwait before heading for the Iraqi capital, state department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement, without giving a precise date for Powell's arrival in Baghdad. It will be Powell's first trip to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April.
Boucher said Powell would meet with top officials in Kuwait "about the situation in the region and our joint efforts to build stability".


In Iraq, the us secretary of state will "meet with Iraqis and with members of the coalition provisional authority in order to see first hand the progress being made by the international community and by the Iraqi people in rebuilding their nation and society from 30 years of Saddam Hussein's destructive rule."
Today's emergency talks in Geneva were called by Annan to discuss a US-drafted resolution on Iraq, a text contested by France, Russia and China, in a bid to reach a consensus on how best to stabilise and rebuild Iraq.

Powell is due to leave Geneva later today. Bureau Report