The Russian foreign minister said this week that his country would not block the renewal of a U.N. mandate allowing U.S. and foreign troops to stay in Iraq beyond the end of the year.

Negotiations over a Status of Forces Agreement are dragging on, stuck by what Iraqi and American officials say are disagreements over "immunity" from prosecution in Iraqi courts for U.S. troops and a definite date for final withdrawal of all U.S. forces.

According to Russian news agencies, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said that, "We’ll support Iraq’s request to the U.N. Security Council if the Iraqi government asks for the mandate of the current international military presence to be extended."

Russia, as a permanent Security Council member, could have vetoed any such request. Some analysts had speculated Russia could take such an action to express its displeasure with U.S. policy in other parts of the world, particularly Georgia and Kosovo.

But Lavrov told reporters that Russia negatively viewed an immediate pullout of foreign forces from Iraq.

The U.N. resolution governing the deployments in Iraq expires on Dec. 31. Bush administration officials had originally hoped to hammer out a new agreement with the Iraqis this summer. But in recent weeks, Iraqi opposition — particularly among Shiites — has hardened against a draft agreement circulated in Washington and Baghdad.

Iran has also condemned the pact, with U.S. officials suggesting that Iranian agents would attempt to bribe Iraqi lawmakers into defeating the agreement.

Because there is no Iraqi parliamentary session scheduled before then, Iraqi officials said discussions would continue past the U.S. presidential elections on Nov. 4.