UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23 (AFP) - Russia on Thursday offered an unapologetic defence of President Vladimir Putin's bid to expand his grip on the country in the fight against terrorism.
With world leaders gathered at the United Nations for their annual debate, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had drawn "harsh conclusions" about terror in the wake of the deadly Beslan school hostage tragedy.
"We will resolutely strengthen the unity of the country and its people in order to counter terror, to guarantee secure and decent life to our citizens in freedom and democracy," he said.
"We will continue to defend our legitimate interests," said Lavrov, until recently Moscow's envoy to the United Nations.
Putin has promised to "radically" expand the Kremlin's control over regional governments to ensure national "unity" against terrorism after the school siege by Chechen militants left 350 dead, many of them children.
US President George W. Bush called Putin on Thursday and warned him to maintain democracy in Russia, a White House spokesman said.
Terrorism has been high on the agenda in the first week of the fortnight's debate, which began on Tuesday, and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw pledged that London would work closely with Moscow on the matter.
But he stopped short of giving full endorsement to a draft Security Council resolution circulated by Russia on Thursday, which aims to ease the extradition of terror suspects and prevent them from hiding behind refugee status.
Britain and Russia are at odds over London's decision to give asylum to Akhmed Zakayev, a spokesman for Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov. But Straw told Lavrov from the UN assembly podium: "Your tears are our tears."
With Iraq Foreign Minister Iyad Allawi due to address the meeting here on Friday, the violence in Iraq has also been a centrepiece of the discussions here.
US hopes for contributions of troops, if only to defend UN personnel helping Iraq prepare for elections in January 2005, took another blow as both France and Pakistan ruled out sending any forces.
"As far as Pakistan is concerned, our domestic environment is not conducive" to sending troops, said Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, whose support for the United States has angered many at home.
Musharraf said the time to ask Muslim countries to contribute troops had been "overtaken by ground realities" in Iraq.
Foreign Minister Michel Barnier of France, a vocal critic of the war, reiterated his country's opposition to the invasion and said sending French troops was out of the question.
"France did not approve of the conditions in which the conflict was unleashed. Neither today nor tomorrow will it commit itself militarily in Iraq," Barnier said.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has repeatedly appealed for troops to protect UN staff in Iraq but has so far come up empty.
He has also pleaded with world leaders to seriously take on the question of reforming the United Nations, in particular the Security Council, whose divisions over the war intensified questions about the UN's effectiveness.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Thursday pleaded the case for Berlin to be given a permanent seat on a reformed council, along with Brazil, India, Japan and an African nation to be determined.
"The reasons behind such a move speak for themselves. A council with more members would enjoy greater acceptance internationally as a basis for greater authority," he said.
France and Britain -- two of the council's five veto-wielding permanent members, along with China, Russia and the United States -- are backing their candidacies.
But in a sign of the difficulties ahead for reform, Italy -- an ally of the United States in Iraq -- voiced strong opposition to the campaign.
"Some member states have advocated the addition of new permanent seats -- for themselves," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.
He did not mention Germany by name, but his country has already come out in opposition to the German bid.
"We do not believe the council's difficulties can be resolved through new permanent, irrevocable appointments and national mandates," Frattini said.