Talks on shape of Iraq start

By ADRIAN CROFT in Nasiriyah

Having declared their 27-day war on President Saddam Hussein all but over, the United States and Britain began talks yesterday with divided Iraqis on how the country should be ruled.

American troops worked alongside local police to restore order in Baghdad and other cities after Saddam's final stronghold, his hometown of Tikrit, fell to US forces without the bloody fight many expected.

Tikrit's fall allowed Washington to move to a new front - threatening sanctions against Syria. With Saddam's whereabouts still unclear, Washington turned up the heat on Iraq's neighbour, calling it a "rogue nation".

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Syria of testing chemical weapons in the past 12 to 15 months and of harbouring Saddam's top associates.

Secretary of State Colin Powell warned of diplomatic or economic sanctions.

Analysts doubt that Washington will take military action and expect diplomatic pressure instead.

Syria denied the US charges, and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed concern that the American approach could further destabilise an already shaky Middle East.

Ahmad Chalabi, the controversial Iraqi businessman favoured by the Pentagon, said he would not attend the talks in the southern city of Nasiriyah aimed at shaping a postwar Iraq, but would send a representative.

Iraq's main Shi'ite Muslim opposition group has decided to boycott the meeting altogether. Mohsen Hakim, spokesman for the Iran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said from Tehran: "We can't hope for much from this meeting."

However, an official at the US-based opposition Iraqi National Front was more hopeful that the talks could begin to bring together Iraq's diverse and sceptical factions.

"This meeting will not decide the formation of a government but the means of setting out Iraq's future," front spokesman Kato Saadlla said. "During the meeting ... we will discuss co-ordination between allied forces, tribal and religious leaders on how to calm matters and fill the current void throughout Iraq."

Jay Garner, the retired American general who will head an interim postwar administration and chair the talks, said he was concerned at the slow start of the transition effort.

"My fear right now is every day we delay we're probably losing some momentum and there's perhaps some vacuums in there getting filled that we won't want filled."

Division and discord run deep among Iraqi opposition groups, but Brigadier General Tim Cross, the top British official in Garner's team, sees one thing uniting all: "I think they want us to leave as quickly as possible. They want to be responsible for their own country again."

Cross thought it could be more than six months before a new Iraqi government took office. "One has to go through the process of building from the bottom up."

Chalabi has said he wants to play a part in rebuilding civilian society but does not seek any political post.

The Nasiriyah talks take place against the backdrop of a calming security situation, with the US insisting that the looting and lawlessness of the first days after Saddam's overthrow in Baghdad are subsiding.

American troops called back thousands of police who previously worked for Saddam to help to keep order.

But the legacy of those days of chaos includes the loss and destruction of thousands of treasures from the National Museum and Library in Baghdad and the ransacking of many government offices.

"We are near the end of the conflict. But the challenge of the peace is now beginning," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Yesterday Baghdad was slowly returning to a semblance of normality after three weeks of air raids and four days of near-anarchy. Some food stores opened. Traffic jams again clogged the streets.

Occasional distant gunfire could be heard and, with water and power still out, hundreds protested at the lack of security and public services.

Deliveries of aid - food, water and medical supplies - have increased as security fears ease.

The World Food Programme said food shipments into northern Iraq through Turkey would soon be running at 2000 tonnes a day and the United Nations Children's Fund said trucks carrying 120,000 litres of drinking water were due to cross from Iran into southern Iraq today.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war