* Brahimi taking over from Kofi Annan as mediator
* Says may go to New York as early as next week for talks
* Says too early to say if he will urge Assad to resign
BEIRUT, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The Algerian diplomat set to
become the new international mediator on Syria has said he
urgently needs to clarify what support the United Nations can
give him and said it is too early to say whether President
Bashar al-Assad should step down.
Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran diplomat, was speaking a day
after the United Nations confirmed he would take over Kofi
Annan's mediation role. Annan, who steps down at the end of the
month with his peace plan in tatters, resigned complaining that
divisions within the Security Council had hampered his work.
Brahimi made it clear he was acutely aware of the Security
Council problem and would therefore need to urgently clarify
what support the United Nations can offer him to ensure his
mission has a better chance of success.
"When I go to New York I will be asking for lots of things.
How to organise ourselves, whom we are going to talk to, (and)
what kind of plan we are going to put together," he told Reuters
in a phone interview from Paris on Saturday.
"We will start discussing all this, what kind of support I
will get and what kind of support I will need to try and do this
job," he added.
Brahimi takes over the role - described as an "impossible
mission" by a senior French diplomat - at a time when fighting
between government forces and rebels is in full swing with no
sign of an imminent ceasefire.
More than 18,000 people have been killed and some 170,000
have so far fled the country, according to the United Nations.
Yet the Security Council remains deeply divided with Russia
and China vetoing sanctions on Assad, arguing that the West is
seeking to topple the Syrian government. The three other
permanent members of the Council - the United States, Britain
and France - all favour tough action however.
Brahimi said he would head to New York as early as next week
to officially accept his mission and will later go on to Cairo
to meet Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby.
He conceded that the problems Annan had faced had given him
pause for thought.
"I've been struggling with the very principle of getting on
such a mission and I've been discussing with the United Nations,
with the Secretary General of the United Nations, how they saw
this and how I would fit in," he said.
In a separate interview with France 24 television, Brahimi
said he would soon meet with the Security Council.
"We are going to discuss very seriously how they can help,"
he said. "They are asking me to do this job. If they don't
support me, there is no job. They are divided, but surely they
can unite on something like this and I hope they will."
Brahimi, 78, served as a U.N. special envoy in Iraq after
the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, in Afghanistan,
both before and after the end of Taliban rule, and in South
Africa as it emerged from the apartheid era.
"TOO EARLY" TO SAY WHETHER ASSAD SHOULD GO
Describing the situation in Syria as "absolutely terrible",
he said he would do his best to find a way of ending the
17-month-old conflict.
"The situation in Syria is dire, the situation is absolutely
terrible. You see that on your television screen everyday.
Villages and cities seem to be flattened from the bombing," he
said.
"I could not refuse in a situation like this where hundreds
and thousands, maybe millions of people are suffering to try and
help no matter how difficult the situation is."
However, he declined to be drawn on whether he thought
President Assad should step down - in contrast to Annan who said
it was clear the Syrian leader "must leave office".
"It's much too early for me to say. I don't know enough
about what is happening," Brahimi said, when asked whether he
would be asking Assad to resign.
He had not yet held any talks with Assad but said he would
meet him and the troubled country's opposition leaders as soon
as the time was right.
"That's another basic principle. Never refuse to talk to
anybody, and if for anything, for the understanding of the
situation."
Brahimi, a Nobel Peace laureate, will have a new title,
Joint Special Representative for Syria. Diplomats said the
change was to distance himself from Annan.
He said he'd been in contact with Annan, a former U.N.
Secretary-General, in recent months but declined to comment on
why Annan's mission failed or whether he'd been advised to avoid
undertaking certain initiatives.
"I've been in touch with him (Annan) throughout his
mediation and in fact I spoke to him only yesterday," he said.
"I can't comment on his (peace) plan but I can say that we
will try to solve this conflict, today is better than tomorrow."
The United Nations confirmed Brahimi was to become the next
mediator as U.N. observers in Syria prepared to withdraw due to
the violence.
Brahimi said he would draw on his past experience.
"Now we are talking about Syria. What I have seen elsewhere
will be useful to remember, maybe there will be ideas on how to
do a few things and ideas on how not to do things," he said.
"It is the Syrians who will make peace or war, nobody else
and we will be there to try to help them as much as they are
willing to accept our help."
(Editing by Andrew Osborn)