LONDON, June 24: US President George Bush's plan for a Western-style democracy in Iraq will never materialize, Britain's former envoy to the country said on Thursday.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who represented London in Iraq until March, said the priorities for most Iraqis were security, jobs and a return to normal life.

"There is never going to be a Western-style democracy in Iraq," Mr Greenstock said in a speech to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a London-based think tank. "Democracy comes quite a long way after the restoration of a decent life.

"That is how I would sum up the reaction of the vast majority of Iraqis, within their culture, within their community, within their Iraqi context." His comments echo those of former British prime minister John Major, who said last year he never envisaged Iraq "as a democracy of the Western sort".

Mr Bush has said imposing a pluralistic democracy in Iraq was one of the aims of the US-led invasion to topple former president Saddam Hussein. Mr Green stock said Iraq's leaders face a "roller coaster" battle to bring security under control after next week's planned handover of power to Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government.

"The worst-case scenario is an implosion of Iraqi security and society down to levels lower than the unified state...perhaps back to the mediaeval picture of local baronies," Mr Greenstock said.

Mr Greenstock was Britain's permanent representative to the United Nations between 1998 and 2003 leading efforts to pass a Security Council resolution to authorize the invasion of Iraq, and was later London's envoy to Iraq. -Reuters