WASHINGTON: The Bush administration is making a mistake by refusing to give Iraqis more authority over their own country, Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi said on Friday, warning that the decision to limit Iraqi influence could spark increased opposition to the US-led occupation.

Chalabi, who has long favoured the creation of a provisional Iraqi government, criticized the White House decision not to grant immediate responsibilities to Iraqis or allow them to choose members of a council designed to advise the occupation authorities.

“We have to open up an Iraqi political process immediately,” Chalabi told Washington Post editors and reporters on Friday. He said an advisory group selected by L. Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Baghdad, would not be more representative than one the Iraqis themselves could create.

Chalabi, arguing that the perception of US occupation “needs to be rectified,” also said the administration should tap into the “enormous energy” of Iraqis and establish a 25,000-member Iraqi security force to relieve US troops from mundane duties. The Iraqis could be trained by the Americans, report to the Pentagon’s Central Command and be accompanied by US forces, he said.

As the White House sees it, the establishment of a new Iraqi military to replace the forces that evaporated during the war is a longer-term US project. Bremer suggested this week that some demobilized soldiers could be hired by Iraqi ministries and private security firms as guards at such facilities as electrical power plants and oil installations.

“If we can hire back and train enlisted men who have some weapon skills already and get them to a high standard,” Bremer told Pentagon reporters by videophone from Baghdad, “then they can start to take over some of the site security from our soldiers, which then allows our soldiers to more aggressively try to re-establish law and order in Baghdad.”

Chalabi, long a controversial figure in the Iraqi exile opposition, returned to Iraq before the war to strengthen his power base and mobilize efforts against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The Pentagon, home to some of Chalabi’s strongest US supporters, arranged to fly him into southern Iraq during the war, and he quickly moved to Baghdad in anticipation of playing a central post-war role.

“From our point of view,” Chalabi said on Friday, “we have done great things. We helped persuade the US to come to Iraq to throw out Saddam and open up the political process. It is up to us now to gain the support of the people and to work this political process, and to win. We are no longer exiles.”—Dawn/The LAT-WP News Service (c) The Washington Post.