Urgent Iraq talks at White House

One option under consideration: naming a new interim Iraqi leader with authority to govern the country until a constitution can be written and elections held, a Bush administration official said. That would be patterned after the model of Afghanistan.

The urgency of the visit Tuesday by American administrator L. Paul Bremer was underscored when Bremer abruptly cancelled a planned meeting in Baghdad with the visiting Polish prime minister before heading to Washington. At the White House, he met with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and other top officials.

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The talks came at a time when Iraqi insurgents have stepped up attacks resulting in the bloodiest week for American soldiers since the end of major combat operations and as US and Iraqi leaders struggle over how to draft a new constitution, a key step in handing over power to the Iraqis.

With a re-election battle ahead, Bush faces a rising casualty toll in Iraq and criticism that he lacks a strategy for postwar Iraq. As of Monday, the US death toll was 394.

US officials have had growing concerns about the performance of the governing council, a senior administration official said, particularly the lack of progress toward a Dec. 15 deadline to set a timetable for writing a new constitution and holding democratic elections.

Bremer has expressed frustration to members of Congress that council officials are not working hard enough.

One idea being considered is the creation of an interim Iraqi leader with authority to govern until a new constitution is in place and elections are held, the senior administration official said, on condition of anonymity. In Afghanistan, the government of President Hamid Karzai was installed by the US-led coalition that ousted the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.

The talks also focused on security issues, said another Bush administration official who also spoke on condition of anonymity. Some critics have proposed the recall of Iraq's army, disbanded shortly after the war. Pentagon officials and Bremer's aides have called that unworkable.

Even as they expressed disappointment in the council's work, administration officials said Bush was not about to disband it.

"The notion that we are about to throw the council to the wolves is exaggerated," said a third senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But there is a need to put some energy into the political transition. It is true they are not as together as we had hoped."

Many members of the US-picked governing council have complained, in turn, that they cannot move quickly and have no real power because Bremer rules the country. The council has not even decided how to choose delegates to draft the constitution, US officials noted in frustration.

Some US officials believe that key members of the 25-member Iraqi council are stalling in hopes of winning concessions from American leaders under political pressure to turn over power to the Iraqis.