Sir John Chilcot, 70, is a former permanent under-secretary of state at the Northern Ireland Office and has been chairman since 2001 of the Police Foundation and sat on the Butler Inquiry into the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

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Secretary of State Colin Powell will be meeting with officials from the other permanent Security Council members -- Russia, France and China -- in the next few days, Bartlett said.

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Wood said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been in touch with representatives of the four other permanent five nations and would make more calls on Monday.

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