The vote came just minutes after the United Nations launched its largest ever emergency appeal, calling for 2.2 billion dollars to provide immediate humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people.

The adopted resolution gives Secretary General Kofi Annan control for 45 days over the humanitarian side of the UN programme that uses Iraq's oil revenues for food and medical supplies.

The unanimity of the vote was welcomed as rubbing some much-needed salve on the bitter schism that emerged within the Security Council in the run up to the invasion of Iraq.

"I think it augurs well for future tasks ahead of us," Annan said after the vote. "We have many challenging questions and I hope we will be able to approach those tasks with the same spirit."

An estimated 60 percent of the Iraqi population of 22 million depends on the "oil-for-food" programme for daily supplies.

The programme was suspended on March 18 just before the United States launched its war against the Baghdad regime.

Friday's resolution was only adopted after some tough negotiations, with the United States and Britain seeking a longer period for the renewed programme and its automatic renewal.

Russia and Syria -- two chief critics of the military action in Iraq -- had opposed using oil-for-food as a channel for emergency war relief, saying it might legitimize the war.

President George W. Bush said he was "pleased" that the Security Council had managed to agree on the terms of the resolution.

Russia's envoy, Sergey Lavrov, reiterated Moscow's opposition to a war being waged "without any support of the United Nations" and said he hoped lessons had been learned that would allow "a more collective effort on global issues from now on."

The four page resolution describes the US and British forces in Iraq as "the occupying power" and reaffirms respect for the right of the Iraqi people to determine their own political future and to control their own natural resources.

It also reminds the "occupying power" that it is ultimately responsible for the civilian population under international conventions.

The UN "oil-for-food" programme was first launched in 1996 in a bid to alleviate crippling sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.

Launching the humanitarian appeal for Iraq, UN Deputy Secretary General Louise Frechette said it was still too early to estimate the extent and nature of the humanitarian aid that will be required.

"The humanitarian effect is already being felt and could grow much worse in the days and weeks to come," Frechette said, adding that the UN hoped to fund the 1.3-billion-dollar food segment of the appeal through the oil-for-food programme.

Benon Sevan, executive director of the UN Office of the Iraq Programme, said a more precise assessment would only be possible once UN workers were back on the ground in Iraq.

"I don't think anybody has a clue as to what the situation is today," Sevan said. "Hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute, the state of the situation in Iraq changes and that includes the distribution systems."

Speaking to reporters earlier Friday, Annan said the Security Council was still discussing what role the UN would play "down the line" in Iraq.

He said the council would have to give him a specific mandate for any additional responsibilities that the UN takes on Iraq, above and beyond the humanitarian and oil-for-food programmes.

"Obviously, if the UN is going to be on the ground, we will have to determine the relationships between the UN, occupied Iraq and the occupying power," Annan said, noting that there are "a lot of issues that will have to be tackled."

In Geneva, a top official from the United Nations children's relief agency UNICEF said as many as half a million traumatised Iraqi children might need psychological help as a result of the war.

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