BAGHDAD, April 28: Thousands of Shias marched in Baghdad on Monday to demand more influence over the country’s future as Iraqi leaders from across the political spectrum met US officials in a gathering aimed at preparing the way towards an interim government.

The delegates, meeting in the bombed-out heart of Baghdad, said they would finalize an interim government at a conference to be held in four weeks.

“All efforts should be made to hold a national conference within four weeks...to select a transitional Iraqi government,” they said in a statement read out at the end of the nearly 10-hour meeting with Jay Garner, a retired US general.

As the leaders debated the future of Iraq, thousands of Shias staged a protest in Baghdad, in a further demonstration of their potential political clout.

Led by dozens of religious leaders from Najaf, they called for their own representatives to be given a role in running the country.

“Yes, Yes, Islam,” they shouted as they marched to Al Fardus Square, where Saddam Hussein’s huge statue was toppled on April 9.

The United States has firmly rejected any idea of allowing a Shia-led theocracy, similar to the system in Iran, to take root in Iraq.

SPLITS EMERGE: At the Baghdad meeting, Iraq’s US administrator Jay Garner pledged to build democracy in the cradle of civilization, but at the outset splits emerged in the ranks of prominent Iraqis over America’s role in an interim government.

The gathering of around 250 delegates came on the 66th birthday of former president Saddam Hussein, whose fate and whereabouts remain a mystery. It also coincided with a trip to the Gulf by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The meeting exposed divisions over Washington’s role in the interim period before planned elections.

Many former exiles said Iraqis should rule their country alone and the United States should have only a limited role.

However, other delegates said they wanted more US supervision because they did not trust those who returned after Saddam’s fall.

“There are differences over the role of the Americans. We here prefer the Americans to rule us in the interim period,” said Suheil al-Suheil, a Baghdad lawyer. “We are not ready to handle this yet. Saddam’s orphans are still alive.”

Many Iraqis are expressing frustration over the continued military occupation of the country by the United States, which has yet to set a date for its forces to leave Iraq.

Tribal leader Hussein Shaanan said: “We thank the forces that have freed us from the dictatorship, but now we’d like them to leave as soon as possible.”

Jay Garner, who heads the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), hopes the process of forming an interim Iraqi government will start by the end of the week.

“It is our responsibility to start the process of the birth of democracy in Iraq here today,” Jay Garner said at the meeting, which took place under tight US military security.

Saying he felt “humble” as it was in ancient Iraq where the code of law and the rudiments of government first began, Garner added: “It’s our job to give you the tools that you need, and the resources you need.”

US and British officials said they would hold a third meeting with prominent Iraqis on the country’s political future in northern Iraq next month. Delegates said it would most likely be in the city of Mosul in two or three weeks.

British Foreign Office Minister Mike O’Brien, also attending the talks, said Iraqis should vote in a referendum on a new constitution before electing their own government to take over from a transitional authority.

He told reporters outside the meeting the transitional government should have only a limited existence.

“I hope we then move to a constitutional assembly, then a referendum and a new constitution and then a directly and properly elected democratic government of Iraq,” he said.

Among those at the meeting were leaders from the Shia and the Sunni sects, as well as Kurds from the north, Arab tribal chiefs in robes and headdresses and urban professionals in Western-style suits.

US tanks blocked the streets outside and American soldiers patrolled the halls and corridors of the conference centre.

KEY PLAYERS MISSING: Ahmad Chalabi, the Washington-backed head of the Iraqi National Congress, did not attend, although other INC representatives were present.

Representatives of the two main Kurdish political parties also did not attend.—Agencies