WASHINGTON, April 24: The United States has decided to keep the members of the current ruling council out of the new interim government it is trying to set up in Iraq, US officials told Dawn.

Commenting on reports published in US newspapers on Saturday, the officials said the United Nations also supports the decision.

Also on Saturday US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the interim government will be sovereign but will have no control over US troops stationed in Iraq.

He also indicated that the new government may not be allowed to deal directly with those fighting US forces except when they are needed to negotiate with them.

Media reports say even longtime Pentagon favourites like Shia politician Ahmad Chalabi may be excluded from the proposed government slated to takeover Iraq on July 1. Earlier this week, the Bush administration also allowed former Baath Party members and military officers to return to government jobs.

Mr Chalabi has annoyed the Bush administration by describing the decision to induct members of the former ruling Baath Party into the government as equivalent to returning Nazis to power in Germany after World War II.

The reports also quote UN Iraq Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi as saying "all opinion polls ... in Iraq say that people want something different" than expansion of the existing governing council.

Mr Brahimi is expected to play a key role in selecting Iraq's future rulers.

Another senior US official, Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman, has said the transitional government will have limited powers. Full sovereignty will have to wait till elections to form the new government next year.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the new government would run Iraq for a period of about six or seven months under the provisions of the transitional law that's already passed.

This indirectly confirms the assertion some media outlets drew from Mr Grossman's statement that the new administration will not have legislative powers.

Mr Boucher, however, said the transitional government may be able to issue decrees it needs to run the country.

Mr Powell said once the new government takes over, US officials in Iraq will withdraw to the US Embassy in Baghdad and will only perform an advisory role.

The State Department has said their embassy in Baghdad may have up to 1,700 employees, about 1,000 Americans and 700 Iraqis. The embassy will be protected by US troops.

Embassy employees would initially live in trailers. Washington has already sent 32 diplomatic security people to Baghdad, along with 51 armoured vehicles and another 98 vehicles were on the way.