BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Senator Hillary Clinton called Friday for a wider international role in running Iraq, but doubted the U.S. administration would cede much control in the country it invaded and occupied."I'm a big believer that we ought to internationalize this, but it will take a big change in our administration's thinking," Clinton, a Democrat from New York, said during a nearly 10-hour visit to Baghdad where she met with U.S. troops, military chiefs and civilian officials including U.S. administrator Paul Bremer.
"I don't see that it's forthcoming," said the wife of former President Bill Clinton.
Clinton, who has ruled out a 2004 presidential bid, arrived in Baghdad with Democrat Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island a day after President Bush's surprise Thanksgiving visit to U.S. troops and Iraqi officials in the capital.
Bush's trip was widely seen as a move to boost the flagging morale of a U.S. military facing mounting casualties at the hands of a deepening guerrilla insurgency nearly eight months after the overthrow of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The Bush and Clinton visits also come as senior Iraqi officials on the U.S.-backed Governing Council struggle to define terms of an agreement for the handover of sovereignty to Iraqis.
Clinton said the United Nations -- which pulled all but a handful of foreign staff from Iraq after the August bombing of its Baghdad headquarters -- could still play a role in administering Iraq, easing the burden on the United States.
"We're in a very difficult political situation, trying to expedite a process for self-governance that will be very challenging," she said.
"It's no longer sufficient for our military to win battles, but they have to win the hearts and minds. It's a very big challenge," Clinton said.
In an interview Friday in the French newspaper Liberation Secretary of State Colin Powell also called on the United Nations to play an active role in Iraq, notably in setting out the timetable and arrangements for restoring self-rule.
The head of the Governing Council, Jalal Talabani, said on Thursday a roadmap for transferring power to Iraqis would need to address the concerns of the country's top Shi'ite Muslim religious authority, which has said the current plan sidelines Iraqis and gives short shrift to Islam in governing.
Shi'ite Muslims, who make up 60 percent of Iraq's population, hope to play the lead role in a future government and their support would be crucial to the success of a proposed transfer of power to Iraqis by the end of June.
Clinton and Reed arrived from Afghanistan, where Thursday she met Afghan President Hamid Karzai as well as troops from the 11,500-strong foreign force in Afghanistan pursuing remnants of the Taliban and allied Islamic militants, including al Qaeda. (This story was based on a pool report from the Associated Press.)
