Iraqi Council turns away from US transition plan

"The caucuses are pretty much dead now," Sunni Muslim council member Ghazi Yawar was quoted as saying in reference to the US plan that calls for caucuses to choose a transitional government that would assume authority on June 30.

Opposition to the US transition plan, agreed to by most council members on November 15, is strongest among Iraq's majority Shiite Muslim community in the south, whose top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is calling for snap direct elections.

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UN diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, who last week led a UN fact-finding mission in Iraq to determine whether elections could be held before June 30, has cautioned it would be very difficult to hold free and fair elections by that date.

Sameer Shaker Suamidi, another Sunni member of the council, told The Washington Post that abandoning the US plan and transferring sovereignty to the council until fair elections can be held "makes the most sense".

Kurdish leader and council member Jalal Talabani has also come out in favor of transferring sovereignty to the council.

Yawar said the caucus system was too controversial, especially if elections were to be held by the end of 2004: "If it's only for six months, it's not worth it."

Senior US officials consulted by the daily said some council members had selfish reasons for opposing the US plan. By remaining in power until the elections, they would wield unrivaled political influence, allowing them to engage in patronage and skew the balloting rules.

The US officials said holding regional caucuses would allow new political talent to emerge and challenge the former exiles who now control the council and provide a more representative Iraqi administration.

"The Governing Council has been an effective body during this phase, but is it the appropriate body to hand over total sovereignty to?" a senior US official asked. "Is it sufficiently representative? Who is it accountable to? Will it be viewed as legitimate by the Iraqi people?"

Anticipating a UN recommendation for year-end elections, the daily said, US officials in Baghdad and Washington were frantically trying to assemble a set of contingency transition plans for Iraq.

Meanwhile, Iraq's deputy interior minister Ahmed Ibrahim confirmed Tuesday five men were arrested over the weekend in connection with the murder last year of female Governing Council member Akila al-Hashemi.