Iraq's political transformation has initial timetable

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 17, 2003

Iraq's political transformation has initial timetable

The US-led coalition forces are supposed to hand over the sovereignty to a transitional Iraqi government by mid-2004, the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) said on Saturday.

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The US-led coalition forces are supposed to hand over the sovereignty to a transitional Iraqi government by mid-2004, the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) said on Saturday.

Unveiling a new political transformation plan, IGC member Ahamed Chalabi told a joint press conference held with seven other members that a elected provisional government shall be in place before the end of June next year.

The government will assume full sovereignty and international recognition, which means the state of occupation shall end and the coalition provisional authority shall dissolve.

Meanwhile, the coalition troops can only keep a degree of presence at the invitation of the then government, stressed Jalal Talabani, the current rotating IGC president.

According to the announcement, the elections of the provisional government are to be prepared by a transitional assembly chosen by the 18 Iraqi provinces no later than May 2004.

The IGC also pledged that a permanent government will be elected before the end of 2005 in accordance with a new constitution which shall be available by then.

All the planned procedures will be exercised according to a law enacted early next year on the principles including the separation of powers, decentralization and establishment of a democratic and federal system.

Sunni member Adnan Pachachi said the IGC will inform the UN Security Council of the timetable as required by the UN resolution 1511.

Pachachi said he believed the United States had "responded to our insistent desire that we should rule ourselves... and I'm very glad to see that our point of view and their point of view have coincided."

The planned steps were believed to be part of a "new strategy" that US President George W. Bush ordered his top aid in Iraq Paul Bremer to prepare for a quicker power transfer.

In Washington, Bush hailed the announcement of the new procedures as "an important step toward realizing the vision of

Iraq as a democratic, pluralistic country."

The White House used to insist that the United States only give up the power and withdraw its forces after a constitution is written and a new government is elected according to the constitution, a process that might take up to two years.

The policy shift came amid the concern of the mounting fatalities inflicted by the more organized and effective attacks in Iraq and the reassessment of the need to win the support of Iraqi population by swiftly return the sovereignty.

According to a US Central Intelligence Agency report, the ordinary Iraqis have begun to sympathize with the resistance after losing faith on US ability to restore stability.

On the ground, guerillas killed one more US soldier with a roadside bomb on Saturday morning in the capital city of Baghdad, bringing to 43 the number of US soldiers killed by hostile fire this month.

In Mosul, 400 km north of Baghdad, two US helicopters were feared brought down by hostile ground fires. The US military in Baghdad confirmed 12 coalition soldiers dead and nine others wounded.

One of the Black Hawks was spotted in a residential neighborhood and a fire caused after the crash spread to adjacent houses.

Great concern over the vulnerability of US helicopters have been raised following the downing of two helicopters which killed 22 US soldiers and wounded 26 others earlier this month.

In another development, Carlos Raleiras, the Portuguese reporter abducted by Iraqis near Iraq's southern city of Basra the previous day told his radio station in Portugal on Saturday that he was released unhurt.

It was the first report of abduction of foreign reporters after the US-led coalition forces ousted Saddam Hussein's regime and occupied the country in April.

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