January 7, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 3, 1423

NEW YORK, Jan 6: President Bush’s national security team is assembling final plans for administering and democratizing Iraq after the expected ouster of Saddam Hussein said the New York Times on Monday.

Those plans call for a heavy American military presence in the country for at least 18 months, military trials of only the most senior Iraqi leaders and quick takeover of the country’s oil fields to pay for reconstruction the paper said.

The newspaper, quoting Bush administration officials who have been developing them for several months, said that the plans would amount to the most ambitious American effort to administer a country since the occupations of Japan and Germany at the end of World War II.

With Mr. Bush’s return here on Monday, his principal foreign policy advisers are expected to shape the final details in White House meetings and then formally present them to the president.

Rather than a military commander, a civilian administrator — perhaps designated by the United Nations — would run the country’s economy, rebuild its schools and political institutions, and administer aid programmes.

The administration intends to eliminate all government elements closely identified with Saddam’s regime, but some parts of Iraq’s government will be reformed and kept, the newspaper said.

The Bush administration has rejected for now the idea of creating a provisional government before any invasion, the report said.

The timetable for the handover of responsibility from the military administration to an international civilian administration and eventually to an Iraqi-run government remain is unresolved, the newspaper said.