Global Policy Forum

By Saul Hudson and Daren Butler

The United States said on Monday that Iraq should have an interim national leadership in place by mid-May, as Iraq's third-largest city held the country's first vote since Saddam Hussein's ouster. "By the middle of the month, you'll really see a beginning of a nucleus of an Iraqi government with an Iraqi face on it that is dealing with the coalition," said Jay Garner, retired U.S. general in charge of postwar reconstruction in Iraq. Speaking to reporters in Baghdad, Garner said he expected up to nine Iraqis to form an interim leadership group that would be a point of contact for the Americans.

The group would be chosen by Iraqis and would consist of some returned exiles and some local Iraqis, representing Iraq's ethnic and religious spectrum. He said the emerging leadership might include Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party; Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress; Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan; Ayad Allawi of the Iraqi National Accord; and Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, whose elder brother heads the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The group would likely be expanded to include a Christian and perhaps another Sunni figure, Garner said. Iraqis decry a breakdown in security and public services in the more than six weeks since the United States led an invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam. Iraqi preachers demanded on Friday that the United States establish a government to restore order after President Bush declared the war effectively over.

FIRST POST-SADDAM BALLOT

In the first vote in Iraq since Saddam was deposed, rival ethnic groups in Mosul gathered to elect an interim council. Amid strong U.S. military security, some 250 delegates listened to a speech by the top U.S. military official in the region before parting to choose the 24-member council, which will select a mayor from three independent candidates. "By being here today you are participating in the birth of the democratic process in Iraq," Commanding Gen. David Petraeus, standing below an Iraqi flag, told delegates.

Mosul is mainly Arab, with a large Kurdish minority as well as Turkmens, Assyrians and other groups. The ethnic mix fueled fears of factional fighting after a wave of looting and violence last month, but military officials are now holding it up as a "model city," citing solid progress in restoring order. U.S. military officials have said it could take up to two years before regular elections are held in Iraq, based on experiences elsewhere in the world. Garner said Iraq's reconstruction was not as difficult as he had expected -- mainly because the war caused less infrastructure damage and fewer refugees than anticipated. "We started with a glass more half-full than we expected," Garner told reporters before leaving on a two-day trip to Basra.

While the U.S.-led war had generally "preserved the wealth of the nation," U.N. sanctions were slowing Iraq's recovery, Garner said. Washington is pushing for U.N. sanctions to be lifted. L. Paul Bremer, the newly chosen top civil administrator for Iraq, was expected to arrive in Baghdad next week, Garner said. Bremer, a former U.S. diplomat who headed the State Department's counter-terrorism efforts, would focus on Iraq's political process while Garner works on reconstruction. The appointment of someone like Bremer had been planned all along, and Garner himself was always intended to be in Iraq temporarily, Garner said. "I'll stay a while. There's got to be a good handoff," he said.

Garner said electricity in Baghdad was now running at 50 percent capacity, but with summer coming it was critical to increase the capacity by repairing transmission lines. Garner said self-proclaimed Baghdad mayor Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi was released 48 hours after his detention in late April. It was widely believed Zubaidi, arrested by U.S. troops for exercising authority they said he did not have, was still in custody. Garner said Zubaidi had stolen cars and confiscated property in his self-appointed role as mayor. Britain resumed its permanent diplomatic presence in Baghdad after a 12-year break, opening an office at its former embassy. British troops may stay in Iraq at least until the autumn, said Maj. Gen. Tim Cross, Britain's top representative in Iraq.

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