US invites 43 Iraqi leaders to plan country's political future

3.00pm

WASHINGTON - The United States has identified about 43 Iraqi politicians -- 14 former exiles and about 29 from inside the country -- to take part in a meeting in southern Iraq on the political future of the country, according to a leading Iraqi politician.

Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi told Reuters today the meeting would take place on Saturday at the Ali ibn Abi Talib air base outside Nassiriya.

US Vice President Dick Cheney also had said it would be on Saturday but his office said afterward it would be later, depending on the state of security on the ground.

Saddam Hussein's rule over Iraq crumbled last evening (NZ time) as US troops swept into the heart of Baghdad.

Three US officials -- White House special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ryan Crocker and an unidentified special adviser to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- were expected to chair the one-day session, Chalabi said from Nassiriya in a telephone interview.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the meeting's venue was also uncertain. "(It) depends on the circumstances of security, of the fighting, of what goes on inside Iraq. ... It's just not decided yet," he told reporters.

The main Iraqi Shi'ite group, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said it would boycott the gathering because of the US military presence.

"We are not going to take part in this meeting in Nassiriya. We think this is part of General Garner's rule of Iraq and we are not going to be part of that project at all," said SCIRI'S London representative, Hamid al-Bayati.

Retired US Lieutenant General Jay Garner will run civilian affairs in Iraq alongside the US and British military presence.

Chalabi, who flew to Nassiriya on Sunday with US special forces, complained the list of participants was weighted toward tribal leaders and people from rural areas.

"Tribal leaders are very important of course but Iraq is an overwhelmingly urban society and I think there should be more representation for the urban people," he said.

"Baghdad is not sufficiently represented and I think there can be some refinements of the people chosen from the various areas. ... The composition at this time looks like Noah's Ark but that is fine at this stage," he added.

Cheney said the meeting would begin planning for an interim Iraqi government.

"We will bring together representatives of groups from all over Iraq to begin to sit down and talk about planning for the future of this Iraqi interim authority and getting it up and running," he told a meeting of US newspaper editors.

Chalabi said he did not expect the gathering to make any major decisions.

"There is a general statement of intent about the Iraqi interim authority that the United States wants to express to the people," he added.

Boucher said the meeting would not be a "coronation" for any Iraqi politician, a reference to Chalabi, and that it would not choose the future Iraqi government.

The United States saw the meeting as the first of a series of regional meetings that would culminate in a conference in Baghdad to form the interim authority, he added.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war