EU foreign ministers agreed on Friday to back a growing UN role in Iraq's political transition process, urging a new UN Security Council resolution on Iraq.

Foreign ministers from the current 15 EU countries and the bloc's 10 new member states started on Friday a two-day informal session during the Irish EU presidency in Ireland's central city of Tullamore, with the Middle East peace process, the deteriorating security in Iraq and the situation in Kosovo at the top of their agenda.

"All members of the Union agree that there is a need for a Security Council resolution as soon as possible, at any rate before June 30 and the transfer of sovereignty," EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana told reporters after talks with EU foreign ministers.

"There is still a debate among different members of the Security Council on its content, but we are agreed on the need fora resolution," Solana said.

"We are agreed that a strong UN role is an essential element for the political transition process ... The European Union looks forward to the UN playing a growing role endorsed by the Security Council in the run-up to the transfer of sovereignty and beyond," Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, told reporters.

"(It would) also galvanize the international community behind this effort to make a success of restoring sovereignty to the Iraqi people. We obviously see a role for the UN as a means of improving the legitimacy of that process," Cowen said.

"The prospects of developing elements of a new UN Security Council resolution, which would add legitimacy to that political development by June 30, would greatly improve the sense of ownership, not only for the Iraqi people," he added.

The Irish foreign minister also urged an end to the upsurge in violence and hostage-taking in Iraq, saying that "those fomenting and perpetrating violence have no regard for the life and welfare of the Iraqi people and the unity of the country and the establishment of democracy there."

Source: Xinhua