Bremer: US in tough fight in Iraq

Bremer said the US would help draw up an Iraqi constitution

Iraq's civil administrator Paul Bremer says the US is in "a tough fight" in Iraq and its forces will stay on after political power is handed over.

In US TV interviews Mr Bremer said that while the US-led occupation would end, coalition forces' presence would not.

"I'm sure the Iraqi government is going to want ...coalition forces here for its own security for some time to come," he told ABC television.

His comments came after new plans for a faster transfer of power were unveiled.

The Coalition is hand over power to a transitional government by June 2004.

The transitional body will prepare for a full sovereign Iraqi government by 2005, following a general election.

New handover timetable May 2004 - Formation of transitional assembly June 2004 - Election of interim government End of 2005 - Election of new government Timetable set for transfer

But critics say even this new, accelerated timetable is not fast enough.

"It's a mess," said Wesley Clark, a Democratic candidate for the 2004 US presidential elections.

"There is no reason to wait until June to give Iraqis back their country. We should be transferring that authority tomorrow."

And French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said he thought it would be possible to have a transitional government in place by the end of the year.

'American values'

On CNN's "Late Edition," Mr Bremer denied it was a major shift in US policy to drop the plan for Iraqis to draft a permanent constitution before getting power back.

He said the US would help write an interim Iraqi constitution that "embodies American values" and would lead to the creation of a new government.

"We will write into that constitution exactly the kinds of guarantees that were not in Saddam's constitution," Mr Bremer told ABC's "This Week" from Baghdad.

"We'll have a bill of rights. We'll recognize equality for all citizens. We'll recognise an independent judiciary. We'll talk about a federal government.

"All of these things will be in the interim constitution which will also provide in a limited time - probably two years - for a permanent constitution to be written that also embodies those American values."

"We have some determined opponents. Particularly the international terrorists who have been coming into the country in the last four or five months," Mr Bremer told Fox television.

"But if you look at the polls here [in Baghdad] ... they tell us that a large majority of the Iraqi people want American coalition forces to stay here until the place is stabilised," he said.