May 22, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19,1424

BAGHDAD, May 21: The head of the US-led administration in Iraq, Paul Bremer, on Wednesday put off until July a planned meeting of Iraqi politicians to chart out the country’s political future.

“I don’t think it’s going to be in June,” he said in a fresh shifting of the target date for the promised national conference that had originally been due by the end of the month.

“We are talking now like some time in July.”

When pressed, Mr Bremer said he expected the meeting to go ahead in the middle of the month, but added: “I’m not going to stick myself with any kind of media deadline.”

He insisted he remained in contact with Iraqi politicians, who have voiced growing frustration with the ever-lengthening timescale for the US-led occupation to retain the reins of power.

“We are continuing our active dialogue with Iraqi leaders, I am meeting with them every day,” he said.

But he was dismissive of the seven-strong leadership council of former exiles established under his predecessor Jay Garner, which he met for the first time last week.

“The group we saw on Friday is not representative of the Iraqi people. We are going to broaden our reach with the partners we are talking to,” said Bremer.

“We want a government representative of the Iraqi people. That’s the process we are in now. We are moving as quickly as we can.”

In recent days, coalition officials have distanced themselves from the original leadership council, saying they wanted to leave time for new parties and new leaders to emerge.

They have also played down the likely role of the interim administration to be chosen by the promised national conference, saying its function will be to draw up a new constitution, not to control the day-to-day running of Iraq.

The policy shift has sparked an angry reaction from the former exiles, who accuse the coalition of creating a “sovereignty vacuum.”

“It’s not up to the Americans to delay this government. This is a sovereign issue,” said the Iraqi National Congress, which holds one of the seven seats on the council.

“We are allies of the United States but we do not take orders from the United States,” its spokesman, Entifadh Qanbar, told reporters Tuesday.

Mr Bremer’s comments came as he visited a former interrogation centre of Saddam Hussein’s feared secret police which is being put back into use in a bid to tackle the lawlessness that is the principal complaint of ordinary Baghdadis.

“We are very aware of the concerns of the Iraqi people for security,” Bremer said, as he emerged from a tour of the single-storey concrete block.

“There certainly is a law and order problem, especially at night.”

The al-Karkh facility, hard by the former foreign ministry, is one of 10 former prisons around the capital that are being renovated to accommodate the hundreds of looters and other suspects being picked up by US patrols.

Since his arrival here early last week, Paul Bremer has overseen a toughening of the US approach, with a new military police task force mounting its first night raids on Monday.

POLICE PROTEST: But the message of Bremer’s visit was somewhat undermined by a bomb scare immediately after his departure and a protest by some of the very police officials he insists he is keen to get back on the beat.

The officials mobbed their new commander, Colonel Jamal al-Maezidi, demanding to be paid their salaries for April and May and be given weapons to protect themselves against the heavily-armed thugs running amok across the city.

US Army Sergeant Charles Guyette, who oversaw the renovation of al-Karkh, also acknowledged the new prison behind a bombed-out state security building, would not be ready for at least a “couple days” and, like the rest of the surrounding neighbourhood, still lacked any power.

The prison will be run by Iraqi police, but under US oversight “until they learn the new system,” Guyette said.

“There will be no abuse, no mishandling of the meals.”

Running the new jails is likely to remain the principal function of Iraqi police for some time.

With most of their police stations wrecked and their authority discredited by years of corruption and brutality, even those officials who have returned to work in the capital are unwilling to go out on patrol without the protection of US troops. —AFP