Iraqis meet to launch new era

ABOUT 250 leading Iraqis from across the political and ethnic spectrum held a US-sponsored meeting yesterday to launch a new democratic era after the end of Saddam Hussein’s rule.

Behind a ring of American tanks, US reconstruction chief Jay Garner opened the Baghdad meeting by telling participants they bore a heavy responsibility to transform their war-ravaged country.

"Today on the birthday of Saddam Hussein let us start the democratic process for the children of Iraq," Mr Garner said. "It is very humbling for me to be here before you because the blood in your veins ... gave force to civilisation."

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the departure of Saddam meant that Washington could cut the size of its permanent military deployment in the region.

"Iraq was a threat in the region. And because that threat will be gone, we also have the ability to adjust some of our arrangements," he said on his tour of Gulf states and Afghanistan.

In a speech to US troops in Qatar, military headquarters for the war, Mr Rumsfeld congratulated his top field commanders and mocked those who had criticised strategy in the early stages of the invasion.

"There were a lot of hand-wringers around, weren't there?" he said. "Never have so many been so wrong about so much."

Despite the quick removal of Saddam, US troops have failed to find chemical or biological weapons Washington's main rationale for the invasion and they are facing growing demands to quit the country and make way for Iraqi rule.

In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the diplomatic rifts that preceded the war appeared to have opened a dangerous split in the industrialised world and he called for "honest discussion" of the issue.

"My fear is if we don't deal with the world on the basis of a partnership between Europe and America, then we will in a sense put back into the world the divisions that we wanted to get rid of when the Cold War finished," he said.

"I think that would be just a disaster for the world," Mr Blair said. France, Russia and Germany led opposition to the invasion, straining their relations with the US.

The fate of Saddam and his sons Uday and Qusay remains a mystery, but former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, who surrendered to US forces last week, was reported to have told his interrogators the former Iraqi leader had survived two air strikes aimed at killing him.

But the report in USA Today also quoted a senior US defence official as saying Mr Aziz was known to be lying about some issues.

A senior US military commander, Major General Buford Blount, said the Americans were following up leads in the hunt for Saddam and his sons.

Delegates at the Baghdad meeting told Mr Garner, who promised Iraq on Sunday that US forces would leave as quickly as possible, that they were grateful to Washington for removing Saddam but now wanted to run their own affairs.

Those attending included clerics from the Shi'ite majority and from the traditionally dominant Sunni Muslims, as well as Kurds from the northern mountains.