New US Administrator in Iraq Denies Delay in Forming Interim Government

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, May 19, 2003

New US Administrator in Iraq Denies Delay in Forming Interim Government

The new US civilian administrator inIraq, Paul Bremer, dismissed on Sunday media reports that the process of establishing an interim Iraqi national government had been delayed.

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The new US civilian administrator inIraq, Paul Bremer, dismissed on Sunday media reports that the process of establishing an interim Iraqi national government had been delayed.

"I don't accept the hypothesis that there's been any delay. I think it's just an exaggeration from the press," Bremer told reporters during his first visit to the ethnically volatile northern city of Mosul.

"I don't know where these stories are coming from because we haven't delayed anything," the US official said, adding that the USauthorities in Iraq were "intent on moving as quickly as possible."

The New York Times said Bremer and British officials had told Iraqi leaders at a meeting on Friday that they had delayed indefinitely a plan to allow Iraqis to form a national assembly andinterim government by the end of the month.

During his visit, Bremer met behind closed doors with Mosul's city council, which was installed on May 5 by local political figures under US supervision in the country's first election since the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

"It is great to see what the Iraqi people can do by themselves once they're released from the tyranny they've suffered from for the last 30 years," Bremer said.

He also met US Major General David Petraeus, commanding officer of the 101st Airborne Division, who had helped organize the election.

After the meeting, Bremer and Petraeus took a walk in the city, which has a mix of ethnic communities, including Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrian Christians.

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