Iraq formally returned to self-rule two days early

9.20pm UPDATE

BAGHDAD - The United States handed over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on Monday, formally ending a 14-month occupation two days earlier than expected to try to forestall guerrilla attacks.

In a surprise ceremony that was finished before it was announced and before ordinary Iraqis were aware of it, Iraq's outgoing US governor, Paul Bremer, gave a letter to Iraqi officials sealing the transfer of powers.

Within hours, Bremer flew out of the country, a coalition source said.

"This is a historic day, a happy day, a day that all Iraqis have been looking forward to," Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar said at the ceremony, which transferred sovereignty at 10.26am (6.26pm NZT).

"This is the time when we take the country back into the international community."

US and British officials say the handover is a key step on the path to democracy in Iraq, but one of the government's first actions as a sovereign power is expected to be the imposition of emergency laws, including curfews, to crack down on guerrillas.

A senior US administration official said in Istanbul, site of a Nato summit, that the handover gave Allawi more leverage and "strengthens his hand to deal with the threats inside his country".

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said in Istanbul the handover had been brought forward to try to thwart insurgents who might have been planning attacks to coincide with the ceremony, long announced for Wednesday.

"I believe that we will challenge these terrorists, criminals, Saddamists and anti-democratic forces by bringing even the date of the handover forward," he told reporters.

Although the interim government led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi will have "full sovereignty", according to a UN Security Council resolution earlier this month, there are important constraints on its powers.

It is barred from making long-term policy decisions and will not have control over more than 160,000 foreign troops who will remain in Iraq. The government has the right to ask them to leave -- but has made clear it has no intention of doing so.

Allawi said after the ceremony that he was committed to holding elections in January as scheduled. Last week he was quoted as saying insecurity might force the polls to be postponed until February or March.

"The Iraqi government is determined to go ahead with elections on January 2 of next year," Allawi told reporters.

There was little reaction from world foreign exchange markets to the early handover.

"Any sign Iraq could have a more stable future would be beneficial for the dollar, but bringing the handover forward by a day or two doesn't change a great deal," said Shahab Jalinoos, senior currency strategist at ABN AMRO in London.

Guerrillas have mounted bloody attacks this month aimed at disrupting the handover, and several foreign hostages have also been seized over the past week.

On Sunday, the Arabic-language satellite channel Al Jazeera broadcast footage of a blindfolded US Marine, whose captors said they would kill him unless Iraqi prisoners were released.

"A Marine assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force has been absent from his unit since June 21," a US statement said. "However, Naval Criminal Investigative Services cannot confirm that Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun has been taken hostage."

Militants have already seized three Turks and a Pakistani contractor, in a new spate of kidnappings.

Fighters loyal to al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said on Saturday they were holding the Turks and would behead them within 72 hours unless Turks stopped working with US forces.

The threats have cast a shadow over US President George W. Bush's visit to Turkey for the Nato summit.

Turkey and Pakistan are not part of the US-led occupation force in Iraq but many of their nationals work as drivers, cooks, cleaners and support staff for US troops. Both countries have rejected the kidnappers' demands.

Zarqawi's group beheaded a South Korean hostage last week after Seoul rejected a demand to withdraw its forces from Iraq, and last month decapitated a US captive.

Zarqawi has also claimed responsibility for a series of attacks, most recently a wave of suicide bombings and armed assaults in five cities on Thursday that killed more than 100 Iraqis and three US soldiers.

On Monday morning a roadside bomb killed a British soldier in the southern city of Basra and wounded two others.

On Sunday a C-130 transport aircraft was hit by small arms fire after takeoff from Baghdad airport. One person was wounded and later died, the US military said.

At least 630 US soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq since the start of the war last year.

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq