May 20, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 17, 1424

BAGHDAD, May 19: The US-led coalition in Iraq said on Monday that a national political congress would likely be held next month, but insisted it would not be creating the new government hoped for by many Iraqis.

Officials from the Organization of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) spoke instead of an “interim authority” which they underlined would have no independent political power.

They said the committee of seven political leaders who have been meeting with US officials would have to be expanded even before there could be talk of setting up the authority.

“We want to have the interim authority in place ASAP (as soon as possible). But there’s a need for that authority to be representative,” an ORHA official told reporters in Baghdad.

The official said the national conference, which was agreed at a US-led meeting last month and had been set for the end of May, would now be held “sometime in June — but it all depends on whether that representativity is broadened or not.”

Several of the political groups on the committee have blasted the United States in recent days, accusing US officials of backtracking on what they said were earlier pledges to get a full government formed within weeks.—AFP