Coalition 'will select Iraqi leaders'

Coalition 'will select Iraqi leaders'

Powell said the coalition had "invested" more in the Iraqi conflict

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that the United States and its coalition partners will select leaders for a new interim Iraqi authority.

Mr Powell said the US was "not unmindful" of the international community's work regarding humanitarian aid for Iraq.

But he said coalition countries had invested more in the Iraqi conflict and had the right to take a leading role in the building a new authority.

The issue of post-war reconstruction has been the subject of a fierce dispute between a number of government departments in Washington.

On Wednesday, an announcement of a meeting on a new authority by Vice President Dick Cheney was later corrected by the White House and clarified by the State Department.

"The international community will have a role to play," Mr Powell said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

"But... we believe that the coalition, having invested this political capital and life and treasure into this enterprise, are going to have a leading role for some time as we shape this process," he said.

Mr Powell added that although the United Nations would also provide a vital role in the rebuilding of Iraq, it did not mean that the coalition was willing to hand over such political authority to the organisation.

Aid - and looting - remains a problem in Iraq

Mr Powell said that US President George W Bush's special envoy to the Iraqi opposition, Zalmay Khalilzad, would be travelling to Iraq "within the next few days" to work with the commander of the US-led war in Iraq, General Tommy Franks, on establishing an authority.

"We will work to find representatives of the different groups... and start it in the region that we have the greatest control over and ... where people have now the greatest freedom to speak up and stand up," he said.

"Who the delegates will be, I can't answer that because we don't know yet."

UN's role

Mr Powell also said that the US and its coalition partners would not be willing to hand over political authority to the UN once Saddam Hussein's regime had been removed.

"The suggestion... that now that the coalition has done all of this and liberated Iraq, thank you very much, step aside and the Security Council is now going to become responsible for everything, is incorrect," he said.

"And they know it. And they were told it."

However, the US secretary of state added that the UN would prove crucial both in endorsing any authority set in place in Iraq and in ensuring humanitarian supplies could begin through the oil-for-food programme.