The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to back the US resolution on Iraq.

The vote on Thursday means the allied coalition working in Iraq will be accepted as a UN force.

The resolution also agrees that power will be handed over to an Iraqi administration as soon as possible.

Russia, China, Germany and France had been expected to abstain from the vote but they accepted reassurances that the transfer of control would happen.

But Russia warned the resolution was "not ideal" which made no mention of weapons of mass destruction.

Germany welcomed the "commendable efforts" of the United States to reflect the concerns of countries that had opposed the war.

Russia, Germany and France warned they did not envisage taking any military role in Iraq.

"We did not want to stand in the way if unity in the Security Council," said Germany's ambassador to the UN.

UN secretary general Kofi Annan welcomed the decision.

"We are determined to continue helping Iraqi people as best we can," he told the meeting in New York.

"I have no doubt that we all look forward to the earliest establishment of an Iraqi government."