Bush orders Iraq effort reorganised

11.00am

WASHINGTON - Under pressure to stabilise Iraq, President George W. Bush said today he had ordered a major reorganisation of United States efforts to bring control to the country, headed by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

The effort, given the name Iraq Stabilisation Group, gives Rice a more direct role over the situation in Iraq, but aides insisted the authority of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was not diminished.

"The Pentagon remains the lead agency. This is a group to help assist the Department of Defence's and the coalition's efforts," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Rice, who is already Bush's point person on the Middle East, will be in charge of a group that includes representatives from the State Department, Defence and Treasury.

The group will co-ordinate US efforts in four areas in regards to Iraq as well as Afghanistan: counterterrorism, economic issues, political institutions and communications.

The new group was formed in anticipation of congressional approval of as much as US$20 billion ($34.16 billion) for Iraqi reconstruction as part of a US$87 billion US spending request for Iraq.

"We want to, here in Washington, help assist the Pentagon and the Coalition Provisional Authority to put those resources to the best possible use," McClellan said.

"It's really to help cut through the bureaucracy back here in Washington," said a senior White House official.

North Carolina Democratic Senator John Edwards, running for his party's presidential nomination, said "it's appalling that the president waited so long to take even this most basic step".

"It's about time President Bush tried to get his bureaucracy in order, but rearranging flow charts is no substitute for leading," he said.

US officials said Rumsfeld's authority was unchanged and that he and the US leader of postwar efforts in Iraq, Paul Bremer, helped craft the new group.

Bush did not respond directly when asked if Rumsfeld's authority would be diminished by the new group.

"This group formed, within the National Security Council, is aimed at the coordination of interagency efforts as well as providing a support group for the Department of Defence and Jerry Bremer," Bush said during a joint news conference with visiting Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill, unhappy at Rumsfeld's performance in bringing stability to Iraq, have been floating proposals that would strip authority from the Pentagon for Iraqi reconstruction and give it to the State Department, where some officials have chafed at being sidelined from what would normally be an effort they would lead.

A CBS News/New York Times poll last week showed a drop in American confidence in the president's skill in handling crises. He has been under fire for a failure to find weapons of mass destruction and to end attacks against US troops and has been accused of hyping the case against Iraq before the war.

Bush insisted the Iraq picture was better than what was being portrayed by the US media.

"The situation is improving on a daily basis inside Iraq. People are freer. The security situation is getting better. The infrastructure is getting better. The schools are opening. The hospitals are being modernised," he said.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq