Bush sets out blueprint to transfer power to Iraqis

Iraqis are ready to “take the training wheels off” and assume political power from the US-led coalition, President George Bush said as his administration began to outline a rough plan for the June 30 transition of authority.

Bush went to Capitol Hill yesterday to brief anxious Republican lawmakers, warning of more difficult days in Iraq even after the transfer of sovereignty.

“This has been a rough couple of months for the president, particularly on the issues of Iraq, and I think he was here to remind folks that we do have a policy and this policy is going to be tough,” said Senator Rick Santorum.

“Things, as I think he commented, are very likely to get worse before they get better.”

Bush will spell out details of the Iraq handover in a series of speeches, beginning on Monday at the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

In remarks released by the White House on Thursday, Bush called the handover “a complete passage of sovereignty”.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was getting closer to designating the people who will serve in the new government.

Brahimi has been working with Iraqis and with Robert Blackwill, an aide to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, to come up with acceptable names.

“We hope that when he (Brahimi) brings forward this slate of officers, we can quickly move that slate to the Security Council, to Secretary-General (Kofi) Annan, for all of us to take a look at and examine the quality of these individuals,” Powell said.

But White House spokesman Scott McClellan said simply that Brahimi’s candidates would be the people who take the reins of government. “I expect they will be the caretaker government,” he said.

“The people he puts forward, we believe will be good representatives of an interim caretaker government until such time the Iraqis can hold free, fair and open elections” in January, McClellan said.

On Capitol Hill, Bush said he was “clearing through the muck” of criticism from Democrats who charge he went into Iraq with no strategy and still has none.

Both the United States and Iraqis must shoulder the burden of stopping violence and shifting to democracy, he told them.

Several lawmakers said Bush reiterated his determination to stick to a June 30 transfer date.

“He talked about ‘time to take the training wheels off,'" said Republican Deborah Pryce. “The Iraqi people have been in training, and now it’s time for them to take the bike and go forward.”

Several Republican lawmakers who attended the meeting said Bush told his audience to brace for more violence after June 30 and predicted insurgents would try to disrupt subsequent elections.

Lord Robertson, the recently retired NATO secretary general, said in an interview that he believes the US-led coalition will need more troops after June 30 than the 135,000 there now.

They will be needed to provide security during the six months after June 30 in which the United Nations will be involved in arranging for an Iraq election in December or January, he said.