November 26, 2003	Wednesday	Shawwal 1, 1424

BAGHDAD/UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25: Iraq’s interim authority has submitted a timetable for self-rule and asked the

UN Security Council for a new resolution that would end the US-led occupation in June.

In a letter to the Security Council on Monday, Jalal Talabani, president of the Iraqi Governing Council, promised to establish the “principle of civilian control over the Iraqi armed and security forces”.

The US-appointed council said it would select a “provisional legislative body” no later than May 31, 2004, which would elect a provisional government by the end of June.

Then “the Coalition Provisional Authority will be dissolved and the occupation...will end”, Mr Talabani’s letter said.

The Governing Council’s timetable, worked out with US and British officials, had been due on Dec 15 but arrived three weeks early. It was requested in an October Security Council resolution, which created the multinational force in Iraq.

“...it has become appropriate for the Security Council to adopt a new resolution taking into consideration the new circumstances,” Mr Talabani wrote.

The United States and Britain are considering a new resolution that would welcome or endorse the accelerated timetable, which Washington had opposed last month.

But faced with the mounting death toll, the Bush administration switched positions this month and decided to speed up a transfer of power.

A new Iraqi constitution would be drafted by March 15, 2005, and then presented to Iraqis in a referendum, after which a general election for a new government would take place before Dec 31, 2005, Mr Talabani’s letter said.

His letter did not mention continued deployment of US and other foreign troops. But it is assumed that a new provisional government in June will request that they stay.

No let-up in US operations: There will be no respite in US military operations during the Eid holidays, the head of the Central Command, Gen John Abizaid, said on Tuesday.

Asked about a call on Monday by a Sunni leader for a week-long ceasefire, Gen Abizaid said “no”.

“I call on the resistance to suspend operations this week so that Iraqis can live in peace, without the blast of explosives, bombs and shooting,” said Adnan al Dulaimi, head of Iraq’s Waqf.

“I ask also the occupation forces not to deal with Iraqis as terrorists ... I call on everyone to observe a ceasefire,” he said in an Eid sermon at Baghdad’s Oum al Qora mosque.

Adnan Dulaimi also urged the US-led administration to free detainees and prisoners “apart from those proven to have carried out criminal acts”. —Reuters/AFP