Iraq authority ‘could be up and running within weeks’

AN interim authority could be up and running in Iraq within weeks, senior US officials said yesterday.

The first of a series of meetings to shape the interim authority and the future permanent government will take place in the southern city of Nassiriyah yesterday.

A total of 75 invitations have been sent out to leaders across Iraq, including Shia, Sunni Muslim and Kurdish groups.

But already rivalries are emerging between different ethnic, religious and exiled groups and some may not take part in the meeting.

A senior US government official said: "Part of the reason for having this conversation is to introduce these people to each other.

"This is expansive, there will be people who don't like others who are coming and therefore don't come themselves. That will happen and we expect it.

"There is no blueprint. This is a big tent meeting, it's an open agenda we are going to turn on the lights and open the doors and see who comes.

"Yes, it's a little vague but democracy can sometimes be a little vague and very disordered.

"This is what we are committed to and want to get under way.

"All we know at this point is it might work and we'll see what the Iraqis think.

"We will have a series of regional meetings and then a national meeting.

"There is a sense of urgency about handing over the process of decision making to Iraqis and now is the start of that.

"We will see who shows up and who doesn't."

US officials were keen to stress they were "facilitating" rather then "hosting" the meeting at Tallil airbase close to the 4,000-year-old ziggurat at Ur where, according to the Bible, Abraham was born.

Many leading figures will be sending representatives rather than be attending personally.

General Jay Garner, sent in by the US to head the interim authority, will be there along with US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and representatives from the US Defence Department and the State Department.

Other representatives will include senior British diplomat Edward Chapman, who was kidnapped in Tehran in 1987.

Coalition partners with forces in Iraq will also be represented Peter Varghese for Australia and Ryszard Krysztoszak for Poland.

So far Ahmed Chalabi, the US-backed head of the Iraqi National Congress who has spent many years in exile, has been touted as a future leader of Iraq.

But yesterday he said he did not want to play any political role.

He told the French newspaper Le Monde: "Absolutely not. I am not a candidate for any post."

As an exile Chalabi may have faced tensions from parts of the Iraqi population.

US officials said there were other options. One said: "Chalabi is one of the most recognised leaders with a position against Saddam for a long time.

"He is a very articulate and brave advocate of freedom for the Iraqi people - but we also have relationships with a number of other leaders. The decision as to who should lead this new Iraq is an Iraqi decision.

"We are not in the business of anointing anyone or imposing anyone.

"We have helped others to come into Iraq, there are other leaders who got a lot more support than Chalabi."

Both Chalabi and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the Shi'ite spiritual leader in Najaf, were thought to be sending representatives rather than attending the meeting personally.