NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 23 The lion’s roar in the unipolar jungle gave way today to a conciliatory acknowledgement of other voices in the forest, as US President George W. Bush virtually accepted an expanded role for the United Nations in Iraq. He asked the agency to help develop a new constitution for Iraq, train civil servants and conduct free elections.

‘‘The primary goal of our coalition in Iraq is self-government for the people of Iraq, reached by orderly and democratic means and the UN can contribute greatly to the cause of Iraqi self-government,’’ Bush said, adding, ‘‘America is working with friends and allies on a new Security Council resolution which will expand the UN’s role in Iraq.’’

US soldiers shrug at Bush’s UN speech TIKRIT: US soldiers in Iraq shrugged their shoulders after listening to President Bush’s speech to the UN on Tuesday, saying he said nothing new and did not address their main concern: going home. ‘‘I wasn’t particularly impressed with anything he came up with,’’ said Staff Sergeant Jason Dungan in Tikrit. ‘‘He just brought up some old issues.’’ ‘‘We’ve been out here for six months, and it looks like we’re going to be here for another six months more,’’ said another soldier as he ate his dinner. ‘‘It’s a done deal, so nothing he says makes a blind bit of difference to us.’’ —Reuters

With the latest polls showing his approval ratings at a dismal 50 per cent — on par with Democrat presidential contenders John Kerry and Gen Wesley Clark — Bush surprised the audience with his almost contrite address.

Clearly, Bush was not expected today to apologise for the disastrous invasion of Iraq this March, but he came close to it. ‘‘I also recognise that some sovereign nations disagreed with our actions. Yet there was and there remains, unity among us on the fundamental principles and objectives of the UN,’’ he said. Bush insisted that it had been the right thing to liberate Iraqis from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein and his links with weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. But that since the US had ‘‘helped to liberate Iraq’’, it would honour its pledges to it. In effect, he promised the US would help Iraq become another Japan.