Bremer answers reporters' questions after his crisis talks with Bush

BAGHDAD, November 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Marking a sharp departure from previous U.S. policy due to rising death toll in Iraq, the United States has agreed to restore self-rule in Iraq as early as next June, before the drafting of a new Iraqi constitution, leading American newspapers revealed on Saturday, November, 15.

Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, outlined the new blueprint late Friday, November 14, to the nine presidents of the Iraqi Governing Council, who were to discuss it with the full 24-member council Saturday, The New York Times reported.  

It said that Bremer told the council that the White House had broadly accepted the plan.

The United States had earlier insisted that a full handover of sovereignty would occur only after the drafting of a new constitution and the holding of national elections.

The new plan would see Iraq returned to self-rule well ahead of the November 2004 U.S. presidential election -- but not the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

It further calls for the formation by mid-2004 of a provisional government that would assume sovereignty from Iraq's U.S. occupiers and formally disband the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

As a first step in the process, limited-participation town meetings would be held across Iraq to choose delegates to a national convention, according to the Washington Post said.

The convention would convene in the second quarter of 2004 to select the form and membership of the provisional government.

After the transfer of sovereignty the provisional government would be tasked with organizing national elections within 12-18 months to elect delegates to a constitutional convention.

The constitution written by that body would be put to a national referendum, and national elections would be held thereafter.

'Good For Everyone'

U.S. troops secure an area of Baghdad after a roadside bomb blast

Council member Ahmad Chalabi praised the U.S. move, describing it as "good for everyone."

"This is good for everyone," he told the Times. "We will have the U.S. forces here, but they will change from occupiers to a force that is here at the invitation of the Iraqi government."

"There was strong support for it," a senior official with the Iraqi National Congress, Chalabi's political organization, told the Post. "Everyone was happy with it."

Details of the new U.S. policy have yet to be formally released by Bremer or by Washington.

If the full U.S.-appointed council agrees to it, council leaders will announce details of the plan in coming days, the Post said.

"It will be pitched as probably some kind of joint agreement, but it will be what Bremer proposed," the Iraqi National Congress official said.

The news emerged after Bremer returned to Baghdad from two days of urgent talks at the White House.

U.S. President George W. Bush said Thursday, November 13, that he had ordered Bremer to "develop a strategy" to accelerate the transfer to self-rule in Iraq, amid mounting worries tied to the rising death toll among U.S.-led troops there, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Bush vowed Friday that U.S.-led troops would not leave Iraq until it is "free and peaceful," as opposition Democrats voiced concerns that a hasty pull-out would be counterproductive.

The violence, which has escalated in the past two weeks, has eroded support for Bush's Iraq policies there even as he ramps up his 2004 reelection bid.

More U.S. Casualties

One U.S. soldier was killed and two others inured early on Saturday, November 15, when a roadside bomb exploded as an army convoy drove by in Baghdad, while three Iraqi policemen were injured in a rocket attack in northern Iraq.

"An improvised explosive device exploded against a two-vehicle convoy in Baghdad today," a U.S. military spokesman spokeswoman told AFP. 

"The explosion resulted in the death of one soldier and the injury of two others," she said, but could not confirm the exact location or timing of the deadly blast.

But witnesses reported an explosion on an overpass in the Tunis neighborhood, north of Baghdad, which they said had left several U.S. casualties and a Humvee damaged at around 09:00 am (0600 GMT).

An AFP photographer took pictures of the damaged vehicle on the overpass which was sealed by U.S. forces.

Furthermore, a powerful explosion was heard in the Iraqi capital at around 5:00 am (0200 GMT), but the cause was still not clear, according to the U.S. military.

The soldier's death raised to 161 the number of U.S. troops killed in resistance attacks   in Iraq since May 1, when U.S. President George W. Bush declared major combat over.

Iraqi Policemen Injured

Elsewhere in Iraq, two Katyusha rockets hit a police post at dawn Saturday in the northern oil city of Kirkuk wounding three officers, one of their colleagues told AFP.

"Three policemen were hurt, one of them seriously when two Katyushas landed, one at the entrance to the post and the other on the road leading here," said Hussein Hassan Allawi at the Al-Uruba station, adding that the rockets had been fired from outside Kirkuk.

Kirkuk, which sits on major oil reserves, has been hit by a spate of attacks on Iraqi police and the US military since October.

Last month, a deadly spiral of indiscriminate attacks targeted several police stations and vital places across Iraq, which claimed lives of innocent Iraqis.