Bush 'set on' handover in Iraq

Bremer flew in from Iraq at short notice

America's administrator in Iraq has said he is returning from Washington with a message that President George W Bush remains set on transferring power.

Paul Bremer was speaking after urgent talks on speeding up the coalition's handing over of authority in Iraq.

He said that Iraqis were already playing a greater role in the day-to-day running of their country.

Mr Bremer admitted the situation in Iraq was "tough" hours after a bomb devastated an Italian base there.

A lorry bomb which hit the base in the southern town of Nasiriya killed several Italians and Iraqis.

'Difficult days'

"He [President Bush] remains steadfast in his determination to defeat terrorism in Iraq and steadfast in his determination to give the Iraqis authority over their country - authority they are already beginning to assume very quickly in the area of security and in the area of running the Iraqi ministries," Mr Bremer told a news conference.

Mr Bremer defended the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council's (IGC) which has been given a 15 December deadline by the United Nations to produce a timetable for writing a new constitution and holding democratic elections.

He said that the IGC had an "extremely capable group of ministers".

The Americans... are just here to steal our oil Ali Qais Baghdad teenager

Asked about a secret CIA report which apparently shows growing disillusionment with coalition and IGC rule, Mr Bremer said there would be "difficult days ahead" because of "terrorist" attacks.

"I don't think the Iraqis are going to be intimidated," he said.

Mr Bremer said he could not give details of his talks with President Bush and the US National Security Council.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice were all at Wednesday's meeting.

The meeting was called at short notice with Mr Bremer cutting short engagements in Iraq to fly back to the US on Tuesday and Mr Rumsfeld temporarily delaying his departure for a visit to Asia.

Iraqi unrest

Peter Biles, the BBC's world affairs correspondent, reports from Baghdad that whilst members of the US-led coalition have never said it openly, they have always wanted to be out of Iraq by the end of 2004.

Troops killed five Iraqis overnight in an apparent accident

The Iraqi people want to see a more representative body than the IGC, our correspondent says - one which has a real say in the running of the country so it seems there are moves to set up a transitional government as soon as possible.

However, the big question is whether or not such a provisional government would be an elected body.

Iraqis are increasingly losing faith in the coalition while the armed opposition gains from their disillusionment, a secret CIA report says.

According to the report - confirmed to the BBC by an intelligence source - tougher action by US troops in response to attacks is alienating Iraqis.

The source said it was something of a warning flag, as he put it, and that it was in line with other US intelligence assessments that had been compiled in the last four-to-six weeks.

In a bid to assess feeling on the ground, Reuters news agency interviewed youths in the Baghdad district of Sarafiya on Wednesday after two US soldiers were wounded in an ambush there.

"This is good," said 15-year-old Ali Qais at the scene.

"If they ask me, I will join the resistance. The Americans have to die. They are just here to steal our oil."