Iraqi Council member Ahmad ChalabiI, left, talks to Talabani

BAGHDAD, November 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Elections will be held in Iraq before the end of 2005, Jalal Talabani, who currently chairs the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi Governing Council, told a news conference in the Iraqi capital Saturday, November 15.

Talabani announced "the election of a new government according to the provisions of the new constitution before the end of 2005."

A transitional assembly to be elected by the end of May 2004 will elect a provisional government before the end of the following month, he said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The U.S.-installed Council's announcement followed the recent return to Baghdad of U.S. overseer in Iraq Paul Bremer, who was summoned to Washington for talks with President George W. Bush.

Bremer met with council members Saturday morning to put forward new ideas to speed up the transfer of power to Iraqis amid a deteriorating security situation in the war-torn country.

Commenting on the declared timetable, a BBC correspondent in Baghdad said the plan is a much faster process to achieving Iraqi sovereignty than the one previously laid out.

According to the BBC, U.S.-led forces could stay on in Iraq at the invitation of the new administration.

Talabani - speaking after the meeting with Bremer - said the transitional body would be selected after consultations with "all parties" in Iraqi society, the BBC reported.

It added that Sunni Muslim council member Adnan Pachachi added: "The reason behind the setting up of this transitional government is to restore sovereignty, to end the occupation and to give a chance to a representative of the Iraqi people to represent Iraq."

Bush Calls It “Important Step”

"I welcome the announcement by the Iraqi Governing Council,” Bush

Immediately after Talabani declared the new plan, U.S. President George W. Bush said that the Iraqi Governing Council's plan to hold elections by the end of 2005 marks "an important step toward realizing the vision of Iraq," reported AFP.

"I welcome the announcement by the Iraqi Governing Council of a political timetable as called for by the United Nations in U.N. Resolution 1511," Bush said in a statement.

He said it was "an important step toward realizing the vision of Iraq as a democratic, pluralistic country at peace with its neighbors."

According to U.S. major papers Saturday, Bremer 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 said that Bremer told the council that the White House had broadly accepted the plan.

Mounting attacks against U.S. forces is considered a major element behind the U.S. policy change

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, according to NY Times.

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.

Washington’s approval that Iraq restores self-rule sooner than previously laid out marks a sharp U-turn in U.S. policy due to rising death toll in Iraq.