Iraqi opposition want government 'in weeks'

Iraqi opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi, in his first public appearance in Baghdad, said today he expected an Iraqi interim authority to take over most government functions from the US military in ”a matter of weeks rather than months”.

But Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, was vague on the specifics of the immediate process to select such an interim government.

US officials have said the process will include a series of meetings by representatives of different Iraqi groups, the first of which took place on Tuesday in the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur in southern Iraq.

Chalabi said that once such an authority was established, the US military would have three functions here: to eradicate any weapons of mass destruction, to dismantle the ousted regime’s “apparatus of terror”, and to disarm the previous regime’s army.

Discussing the immediate future, Chalabi said he foresaw “first reconstruction of basic services, done by Jay Garner,” the retired American general designated to run the military administration. “I expect this stage to take a few weeks.”

After that, he said, “an Iraqi interim authority will be chosen by Iraqis and take over the business of governing.” following that, a proposed constitution will be debated by a constituent assembly and then voted on in a general referendum and be the basis for general elections, Chalabi said.

“I expect this process will take two years,” he said. “The United States of America does not want to run Iraq,” Chalabi added. “That is the policy of the United States, that’s what President Bush has said, and I believe him.”