"My instinct is that it will take more than year and less than two years," to hold elections, Sawers said.

BAGHDAD, May 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The top British civilian in Baghdad, John Sawers, said Tuesday, May 20, that the U.S.-led forces did not intend to hand power to an Iraqi government until elections have been held, which he expected to take between one and two years.

The special envoy of Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an interview he hoped an interim administration could be formed after a national conference in one to two months, but said its role would be to draw up a new constitution for Iraq, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The statements contradict with earlier U.S.-British assurances that power would be turned over to the Iraqis as soon as possible, amid wide fears among Iraqis for a long-term occupation of their country, which has the second largest oil reserves in the world.  

Dashing the hopes of longtime opponents of Saddam Hussein who have returned in the expectation of quickly taking the reins, Sawers said the U.S.-British occupation would continue to control the day-to-day running of Iraq.

“I haven't talked to any Iraqi who thinks the job can be done better by some ad-hoc committee than by the coalition itself," he said.

"We can't simply give power to these self-appointed individuals and we're not going to do that,”

"They as politicians obviously want to build on their leadership roles and attract support in the country but it will only be possible to hand over power to an Iraqi government when it has been genuinely elected by the Iraqi people."

Longer

In what was billed as a concession to U.N. Security Council members opposed to giving the U.S.-led forces too much control over Iraq's future, a final draft resolution by London and Washington late Monday, May 19, sought endorsement of their occupation "until an internationally recognized, representative government is established by the people of Iraq and assumes (its) responsibilities."

Previous drafts had spoken of a 12 month period to be renewed as necessary.

But Sawers insisted that the new timeframe was actually likely to be longer than the previous one.

"My instinct is that it will take more than year and less than two years," to hold elections, he said.

"There is no reliable census which will be necessary to establish an electoral register."

A seven-strong leadership council of former exiles has been holding talks with Sawers and the top U.S. official here Paul Bremer, hoping to be able to quickly form an interim government to run post-war Iraq.

But the British official said the coalition believes that the seven have yet to demonstrate either their popular support or their ability to run a country plagued by lawlessness and a shortage of basic services.

"I have sympathy with those people who say that we shouldn't just hand over power to self-appointed people who have come back from abroad.

"We want to ... leave time for new political parties to form and for new leaders to emerge.

"There is a tension between what responsibility you give to politicians who have not yet demonstrated their level of support and what responsibility you give to technocrats who can re-establish effective administration."

Many Iraqis poured their anger at the new occupiers for turning a blind eye to looting and thievery in the country and only protecting the Oil Ministry building.

Sawers said the job of drawing up a new constitution, to be entrusted to the U.S. planned interim administration chosen by a national conference in "late June or early July," should not be underestimated.

The question of the future powers and borders of a regional authority for the Kurds of the north, as well as the return of homes and land to those displaced by Saddam's policy of Arabization, were "immediate and sensitive issues," he said.

Sawers said the group of seven were also tasked with holding meetings in each of Iraq's 18 provinces to come up with candidates for the national conference, which is expected to give fair representation to women and all of the nation's ethnic, tribal and religious groups.