Iraqis shape plan for new government

As impatience grows over the lack of clear authority and basic services a month after US-led forces toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein, a sense of urgency surrounds efforts to create a provisional government in Iraq.

Iraqi political leaders were expected to present their plan to US officials last night. In essence, they hope to convene a national conference next month to elect a government that would last one to two years, until elections can be held.

The Iraqi proposal marks the first step toward democratic rule in Iraq, and presents a key test of the ability of disparate former opposition groups - whose years in exile were periodically marked by division - to work together.

"We have our differences, and the process will be difficult, but I hope we can do it because it is very critical," says Adel Abdul Mahdi, a senior official of the largest Iraqi political party, the Supreme Council for an Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).

In a hotel surrounded by Kurdish special forces armed with AK-47s, the parties argued over whom to invite and how to proceed - a process that was expected to last long into the night.

At issue is just how the 350 to 400 delegates to that conference should be chosen. The assembly's makeup will determine the shape and ideology of the interim government, which will play a key role in setting Iraq's political course.

"They know that in spite of their differences, agreement must emerge," says Gailan Ramiz, who teaches politics at Baghdad University. "The force for a compromise will be there, because they know that Iraq will break up if there isn't one."

The heads of five parties allied in the struggle against Saddam Hussein were expected to broaden their council to include other groups in the "nucleus of leadership" that retired Gen. Jay Garner, the No. 2 civil-administration official in Iraq, predicted earlier this week. That council is designed to lead Iraq toward representative government under US and British supervision.

The US-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC), led by Ahmed Chalabi, wants the conference to include the 65 members of a council elected last December at an opposition meeting in London, and one delegate per 100,000 people, chosen from Iraq's 18 provinces.

This would weight the assembly more towards Iraqis who did not go into exile. "We are saying we should leave political parties behind, and get more Iraqis from inside who don't have parties," says Zaab Sethna, spokesman for the INC.

Such "internal" delegates would be appointed by professional organizations, trades unions, local mosques, tribal leaders, and other representative groups, with some seats set aside for minorities such as Christians, Mr. Sethna suggested.

SCIRI, along with the two Kurdish parties and the Iraqi National Accord, run by former Iraqi Army Chief of Staff Ayyad Allawi, are demanding that more political-party representatives be given seats in the assembly.

SCIRI and the two Kurdish groups, the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which hold more than half the seats on the existing 65-member council, would benefit most from such an arrangement if the new places were allotted according to the same proportions.

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