Splits emerge over Iraq transition plans

6.00pm

NEW YORK - The United States is triggering fresh tension with its allies, including Britain, by failing fully to define what kind of transition plan it sees for Iraq once the war is over.

At the same time the US is signalling that it expects to retain primary control of the country, with the United Nations given only a subsidiary role.

The debate, as well as the secrecy that surrounds the US plans, is similarly creating in-fighting inside Washington, with a power struggle between the Pentagon and the State Department.

Equally disquieted are members of the US Congress who want the influence of the Pentagon sharply curtailed.

Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy US Defence Secretary, has tried to dampen some of the controversy by emphasising that it will be for the Iraqi people to decide on the make-up of a first post-Saddam government.

But he also suggested that it would take more than six months to create such an administration.

Countering suggestions that Washington will try to handpick Iraq's new leaders, Mr Wolfowitz said the US "can't say that anyone should take a leading role".

He added: "By definition, if you're going to have a government, or even a transitional authority, that represents the legitimate views of the Iraqi people, it's the Iraqi people that have to decide.

"His words disguised differences of views, however, on how the first seeds of an Iraqi-led government should be selected.

The US is pondering installing some kind of interim Iraqi authority in southern Iraq soon - possibly even before Saddam Hussein is toppled - thus making the issue urgent.

Last week, Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, caused a stir by suggesting that an Iraqi authority be set up in the south immediately, headed by Iraqi political exiles.

The idea is being strongly resisted by the State Department, which argues that it would be better to wait to see the full array of Iraqi opposition leaders who may emerge as the power of Saddam fades.

With its allies, meanwhile, the US is facing a deepening dispute over the involvement of the UN in Iraq after the conflict.

Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, is expected to push for a leading role for the UN in any interim administration during talks with President George Bush tomorrow.

The same message is likely to be delivered by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan.

Last night, he asked for a special meeting with the full UN Security Council this morning and he is expected to press the case with ambassadors.

So far, however, there is every sign that Washington - and the Pentagon, in particular - will resist allowing the UN to oversee the transition to an Iraqi-led government in Baghdad.

Washington would clearly prefer to see the UN and its various agencies help only with elements of reconstruction and averting a humanitarian crisis.

It wants primary responsibility for reconstruction, including short-term administration of the country, to remain in American hands.

The task has been specifically given to a specially created agency called the 'Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance'.

It is headed by a retired US Army General, Jay Garner, and he is answerable to the Pentagon.

General Garner is currently in Kuwait, where he is said to be assembling a group of hand-picked US civilians to take over the various Iraqi ministries in Baghdad.

Diplomats in New York warn, however, that several Security Council members - notably France, Germany and Russia - are highly unlikely to approve any resolution that essentially subordinates any UN activity in Iraq to the Pentagon.

Opposition to giving carte blanche to the Pentagon in overseeing a post-conflict Iraq continues to grow meanwhile in the US Congress.

Members of Congress have rewritten provisions in a $2.

5 billion emergency appropriations bill submitted by President Bush to fund Iraqi reconstruction specifically to prevent the money going exclusively to the Pentagon.

They argue that it should be a job for the State Department and Secretary of State, Colin Powell.

"The Secretary of State is the appropriate manager of foreign assistance, and is so designated by law," commented Rep.

Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz), a House Appropriations Committee member, expressing a view widely held across party lines.

Many on Capitol Hill are also complaining that the Pentagon is withholding information from them on the exact plans of General Garner and his adminstration-in-waiting.

One senior Congressional aide told the Washington Post this weekend that the Pentagon "has refused requests by the staff of the Appropriations Committee to brief us, and has its people sitting around a swimming pool in Kuwait drawing up plans".

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Herald Feature: Iraq war