Iraq 'long haul' for US troops

Many Iraqis want the war-weary US troops to go home

The United States' administrator in Iraq has said American-led forces will stay in the country no longer than necessary, but will see Iraq through the transition to an elected government.

Paul Bremer described the recent formation of an administrative council of Iraqis as a tangible benefit of liberation, adding that the main task now was to draft a constitution leading to elections.

The most senior British official in Iraq, John Sawers, said polls could take place as early as next year after which the coalition administration would withdraw while British troops would stay as long as the new government wanted them.

In one of its first moves, the new Governing Council has agreed to establish a tribunal dealing with war crimes committed under Saddam Hussein's rule.

Speaking to journalists in Baghdad, Mr Bremer linked the duration of the occupation of Iraq to political progress.

The timing of how long the coalition stays here is now in the hands of the Iraqi people Paul Bremer

Once a constitution is approved "democratic, free and fair elections can be held in Iraq for a fully sovereign Iraqi government," Mr Bremer said.

"Then our job, the coalition's job, will be done... The timing of how long the coalition stays here is now in the hands of the Iraqi people."

US soldiers who had been expecting to be sent home from Iraq soon have been told they will remain in the Gulf indefinitely.

Soldiers - and their families - reacted with dismay to the news that they would not be home in September as they had hoped.

The Bush administration is under increasing pressure from the public and Congress to replace war-weary American troops.

Critics in Congress say the administration should do more to get foreign help including from the French, a bitter opponent of the war.

'Victims as judges'

Iraq's new Governing Council said it would create a body to run a special court system charged with trying former members of Saddam Hussein's regime and suspects accused of crimes against humanity.

MASS GRAVES IN IRAQ Kirkuk: Kurdish officials report discovery of 2,000 bodies Muhammad Sakran: Reports say more than 1,000 bodies found Babylon: Children's bones reportedly among remains found Al-Mahawil: Up to 15,000 bodies feared buried Najaf: 72 bodies found Basra: Grave believed to contain about 150 Shia Muslims Abul Khasib: 40 bodies reportedly found

"These are not normal crimes we are talking about," a spokesman told reporters, saying the crimes would cover the killings of hundreds of thousands of people.

A sub-committee formed to make recommendations on the tribunal is led by a Kurdish judge, Dara Nor al-Din, who once served eight months in prison for challenging a law over confiscation of land without due compensation.

The Governing Council's move echoes a decision taken by the occupying forces in April.

The US and Britain had said Iraqi war crimes suspects would be tried by a panel of Iraqi judges made up from those not tainted by a role in the old system.

Among cases to be investigated are:

• The reported killing of 8,000 members of the Kurdish Barzani clan in 1983

• The reported killing of 300,000 Shia Muslims after the 1991 Gulf War

But New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch said an Iraqi tribunal could not be expected to administer impartial justice to the ousted Iraqi regime.

"Saddam's victims should not be overseers of the justice system," the organisation's London director, Hania Mufti, told AP news agency.

"It should be independent of both the former regime and its victims."