A national conference to select Iraq's new interim government will be held by mid-July, the top U.S. official in Iraq said Wednesday.
"We're talking now like sometime in July to get a national conference put together," said L. Paul Bremer, Iraq's U.S. civilian administrator. "I don't think it will be in June."
According to AP, Bremer assessed the conference would be held in mid-July, adding that an earlier June deadline was an artificial one devised by the press. The plan was to assemble some 300 representatives from Iraq's many factions who would elect a new authority.
"I'm not going to stick myself with any kind of media deadline," Bremer conveyed during a tour of the renovated al-Karkh jail in central Baghdad.
"We are continuing our active dialogue with Iraqi leaders, we are meeting with them every day," Bremer stated. He confirmed that his object was to establish a government "representative of all Iraqis." "We're going to broaden our reach with partners we're talking to," Bremer was quoted as saying.
"We want a government representative of all Iraqi people," he said. "That's the process we're in now. We are moving as quickly as we can."
Bremer said US-led forces would stay in Iraq only as long as they were needed. "We have no strategic desire to be in Iraq any longer than we have to," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
