Iraqis 'to draw up constitution'

Bremer is pointing the way ahead for Iraq

The United States administrator in Iraq says a constitutional conference will be convened in the coming weeks to decide on how the country will be ruled.

Paul Bremer - speaking at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Jordan on Sunday - said all delegates to the conference would be Iraqi.

On Saturday, Jordan's King Abdullah opened the WEF with a speech in which he also said the new Iraq should respect its people's right to determine its own future.

The constitutional conference would provide the foundation for elections in a free and sovereign Iraq, Mr Bremer said.

"We cannot have a sovereign government in Iraq until we have elections.

"And we cannot have elections on the basis of the 1970 Saddam constitution - therefore we have to have a new constitution."

The job of the US-led coalition would be done at that point, he added.

Alive or dead?

On the issue of oil revenue, the US administrator said that some of the proceeds from future sales could be distributed directly to the Iraqi people.

The fate of Saddam and his sons remains unclear

And Mr Bremer also said Saddam Hussein's fate needed to be resolved one way or another.

Uncertainty about whether the former Iraqi leader is still alive only emboldens his supporters by enabling them to say he will come back, Mr Bremer said.

He told reporters that the US had "reached no conclusion" as to whether Saddam Hussein was alive or dead.

"I think it's important for us to try to reach a conclusion - have him captured and show him alive, or prove definitively that he is dead," Mr Bremer said.

There has been increasing speculation in recent days that Saddam Hussein and his sons may be alive and in Iraq, while efforts to capture them have intensified.