Express Iraq handover planned
US president George W Bush is to speed up plans on handing over power to Iraqis following the latest spate of attacks on coalition troops.
Elections have been earmarked for the first half of 2004 with a new government to be put in place before the constitution is penned.
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Iraqis were “clamouring” for self-determination.
The US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, is in Baghdad for discussions with the Iraqi Governing Council about the new interim government.
The Council has until December 15 to publish its programme on how it intends to draw up a constitution for the country.
A quick handover has the blessing of Mr Bush who is looking to reduce the number of American troops in the war torn region ahead of presidential elections next year.
“We want the Iraqis to be more involved in the governance of their country,” Mr Bush told reporters.
And Foreign Secretary Jack Straw last night said sovereignty ought to be entrusted to the Iraqi people “as quickly as possible.”
Speaking at a news conference with US secretary of state Colin Powell in Washington, Mr Straw said the coalition wanted Iraqis to “assume sovereignty and responsibility for their own lives.”
He said: “Everybody in the international community has the same common interest ensuring that these terrorists are defeated, that the coalition is able to help create conditions of security, and that we advance as quickly as possible to ensure that the Iraqi people are the ones that assume sovereignty and responsibility for their own lives.
But he warned that there was “no magic” solution to the current crisis.
His remarks came after 18 Italian police officers were killed in a suicide bombing in southern Iraq.
Mr Straw, reflecting some of the sentiment across the Atlantic on the daily dangers facing coalition soldiers, said the number of troops in Iraq was constantly under review.
The number of daily attacks on coalition military personnel in Iraq now averages 30.
After arriving in Washington on Wednesday, Mr Straw held meetings with Vice-President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Mr Powell.
