Iraqis, US cut deal on president as bombers strike

BAGHDAD - Iraqi leaders cut a face-saving deal Tuesday with the United States and United Nations on a president and government to lead the country out of occupation.

An 11th-hour compromise saw Washington's choice of president make way for tribal chief Ghazi Yawar. He was then sworn in with an interim cabinet of technocrats in a televised ceremony rich in symbolism at a palace complex built by Saddam Hussein.

A car bomb that tore through the nearby offices of a Kurdish political party, killing and wounding several people, underlined the scale of the challenge the interim administration faces in organising Iraq's first free elections in the new year.

Several rockets also landed around the US compound as officials were meeting, wounding one Iraqi. And a suicide car bomber killed 11 Iraqis outside a US base north of Baghdad.

Yawar called for the United Nations to give Iraq "full sovereignty" when the US-led occupation authority is wound up on June 30. But 150,000 foreign soldiers, mostly Americans, are set to stay on for the foreseeable future to provide security.

After two days of bitter confrontation, the United States and UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi finally accepted Yawar in the largely ceremonial role of head of state after their preferred candidate, elder statesman Adnan Pachachi, turned down the job.

But in return the Iraqi Governing Council agreed to dissolve itself with immediate effect and accepted a cabinet line-up under Prime Minister-designate Iyad Allawi that featured many fewer of its own members than it had wanted.

Brahimi, addressing Iraq's new leaders, said it was the "first step on a road that will no doubt be long and difficult" and that Iraqis were looking forward to a fresh start and wanted to put the wars and hardships of the Saddam years behind them.

CAR BOMB

The death toll was unclear in the bombing of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's Baghdad headquarters. A US officer said three people were confirmed dead and 20 wounded, but police at the scene said the toll was considerably higher.

A huge crater was blown into the ground at the entrance to the PUK building, close to the "Green Zone" compound where officials were announcing the deal on the new government.

In a face-saving maneuver, the 22-member Governing Council initially dropped its objection to Pachachi. Then, within minutes, the 81-year-old former foreign minister renounced the post and Brahimi declared that Yawar would become head of state.

"Pachachi was named, then he turned it down and Yawar was named to the position instead. That's it, and everyone is happy," Council member Rajaa Habib Khuzai told Reuters.

Officials then announced that the Council, whose members US officials had accused of trying to cling to power by claiming positions in the new government, was being wound up.

"The Governing Council dissolved itself today. It no longer exists," Council member Mahmoud Othman told Reuters. Iyad Allawi, the Shi'ite former exile with close links to the CIA whom the Council nominated as prime minister Friday, then announced a government that included only two other Council members among 26 cabinet ministers and five junior ministers.

"The vast majority of the cabinet are fresh faces," said a US official. "Not everybody can be pleased in a democracy."

After a Sunni cleric chanted a recitation from the Koran offering advice on wise leadership, the new administration was sworn in at a building in the Green Zone compound where Saddam is expected to stand trial for crimes against humanity.

DELICATE BALANCE

Reflecting the balance among Iraq's ethnic and religious groups, two vice presidents -- one Shi'ite Muslim, the other a Kurd -- were appointed to serve under Yawar, who is from the long dominant Sunni minority to which Saddam also belongs.

US and UN officials had said in the past that the Governing Council did not have the right to make appointments on its own. But it caught Brahimi off guard Friday by announcing the appointment of one of their number as prime minister.

Brahimi had said he wanted the interim government to be composed mainly of apolitical technocrats, whose prime task would be to organize elections in January.

Yawar, 46, is a U.S.-trained civil engineer from the northern city of Mosul and a chief of one of the biggest tribes in Iraq and beyond its borders. He enjoys support from Kurds and Shi'ites and worked for many years in Saudi Arabia.

In Mosul, people gathered at Yawar's father's home to celebrate, some of them firing in the air.

Yawar has criticised the US-drafted UN resolution that sets out the handover plan, complaining it gives Iraqis too little control of foreign troops and its oil revenues.

"We the Iraqis look forward to being granted full sovereignty through a Security Council resolution to enable us to rebuild a free, independent, democratic and federal unified homeland," Yawar told a news conference after his appointment.

Wearing a traditional Arab robe and headdress, Yawar later said at the swearing-in ceremony he would work to unite Iraq's disparate communities and ensure elections were free and fair.

Hoshiyar Zebari, the re-appointed foreign minister, was heading to the United Nations in New York Tuesday.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq