US Iraqi Administrator Tours North to Meet Kurdish Leaders

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 22, 2003

US Iraqi Administrator Tours North to Meet Kurdish Leaders

Jay Garner, the US-imposed Iraqi administrator, flew to the Kurdish-run north Tuesday for meetings with Kurdish leaders, reports said.

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Jay Garner, the US-imposed Iraqi administrator, flew to the Kurdish-run north Tuesday for meetings with Kurdish leaders, reports said.

The retired US general, who is overseeing an interim US administration until an Iraqi government can be established, first flew to Arbil, a city controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), before heading to Sulaimaniya in a CH53 helicopter.

Upon his arrival at Sulaimaniya, Garner was warmly embraced by Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

The PUK and the KDP are two rival Kurdish groups that have run parts of northern Iraq since US-led forces created a no-fly zone toprotect them from attack by Iraqi troops after the 1991 Gulf War.

This was Garner's first return to the region 12 years after he led the Operation Provide Comfort in 1991 to free the Kurds from the rule of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"What you've done up here is going to become a model for the whole country," Garner told Talabani, referring to the relative prosperity in the mountain region.

Garner then visited the university in Sulaimaniya where he met with students and faculty members.

Garner and his team were due to head later to Iraq's main northern city Mosul to hold formal talks with Kurdish leaders on restoring vital services in major cities.

Talabani and KDP leader Massud Barzani called Tuesday for a major meeting in Baghdad of leading Iraqi opposition factions to discuss ways of setting up an interim administration in Iraq.

Garner flew to the north after his tour of Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Monday, where he assess for the first time the widespread damage caused by war to the city of 5 million people.

He visited Baghdad's largest Yarmuk hospital before touring the al-Dora power station and a water treatment station.

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