September 10, 2003	Wednesday	Rajab 12, 1424

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BAGHDAD, Sept 9: The Arab League decided on Tuesday to allow Iraq’s US-installed government to take Baghdad’s seat.

Libya boycotted the meeting of the Arab League to protest the admission of the Governing Council to the pan-Arab grouping. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said the decision had been “collective” without saying whether it had been unanimous.

After taking the seat, which had been vacant since Saddam Hussein was overthrown in April, interim foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari told Arab counterparts in Cairo that the new Iraq wanted “better relations with Arab countries”.

Iraq has “no intention of cutting itself off from its Arab brothers”, he said after Washington brought considerable pressure to bear on Arab states to admit representatives of the interim government.

Washington hailed the decision to allow Mr Zebari to take his seat “temporarily” at regular League meetings in Cairo as an Arab legitimization of the transitional arrangements for Iraq.

The United States also saw it as a key step towards winning international support for a large stabilization force to tackle the armed resistance bedevilling the US-led occupation.

However in Baghdad, Ibrahim Jaafari, a member of the Governing Council, said the Arab League development was “better than nothing”.

“We would have wished for the word ‘temporary’ to be dropped,” but added, “we are in a transition situation, the council itself is provisional until a constitution and elections.”

An Arab diplomat said League countries would ask Iraq’s interim government to push for a timetable for the withdrawal of US, British and other occupying forces from the country.

The diplomat said such a commitment was one of the conditions Arab foreign ministers imposed before admitting the Iraqi government to the League.

Recognition of the government came ahead of a meeting of UN Security Council heavyweights, including US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in Geneva on Saturday to discuss a larger international stabilization force for Iraq.—AFP