Accord calls for US to cede control by July

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi officials, encouraged by the prospect of running their country, agreed yesterday on a plan to end American control by July 1 and transfer power to an Iraqi government with international recognition and full law-making powers.

With the announcement, the Bush administration reversed one of its key principles, to which it had held firm before the war erupted in March: American officials would not cede power until democracy was enshrined in a permanent constitution. Still, some troops are expected to remain for some time.

"With its assumption of power, the state of occupation will end," said Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress and a prominent member of Iraq's Governing Council, told reporters yesterday, as he announced plans for a new government. That government, which Chalabi called a "transitional national assembly," will be elected by tribal leaders, local council members, and party officials, in a massive campaign to mobilize thousands of grass-roots communities.

Under the new deal, caucuses of local leaders in each province will elect representatives to a national assembly in Baghdad by May 31. By June 30, the assembly will elect an executive body -- the government -- from among themselves, to take control of the country.

Rather than a constitution, a "basic law," written by Feb. 1, will act as a temporary basis for government and include Western-style guarantees: a bill of rights, free press, and human rights, according to Iraqi officials.

The government will then organize elections for a group of constitution writers by March 15, 2005, and national elections for a new government before the end of 2005. The new government would negotiate an accord on the status of coalition troops.

President Bush welcomed the announcement yesterday and said in a statement that it would "help Iraq toward realizing the vision of Iraq as a democratic, pluralistic country at peace with its neighbors."

The deal is aimed at ending a crisis that has intensified this month, as violence has surged across Iraq, drawing in parts that until now were relatively peaceful. The death toll of American soldiers has soared, and passed the 400 mark yesterday, when a First Armored Division soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.

Earlier this week, members of the Governing Council bluntly told US officials that the constitution could be written only by people who were elected by a national vote, an event that would have prolonged American occupation by about 18 months.

That delay did not seem critical until recently. But since late October, with a series of suicide bombs and missile attacks now a daily event, Iraqi and US officials have believed that an 18-month delay could allow insurgents to develop a full-blown guerrilla war.

Such a warning was disclosed last week in a confidential report by the CIA station chief in Baghdad, which was delivered to Bush officials last Monday and leaked to reporters. The report said Iraq could face widespread national resistance without an immediate political deal.

"There is a political dimension to our security strategy which is as important as our military strategy," said Daniel Senor, an adviser to the US administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, with whom he traveled to Washington on Wednesday for emergency meetings with top administration officials. Speaking to a small group of reporters last night, Senor said it had become "crystal clear" to US officials that their previous plan was unworkable, given Iraqis' demands for elections to write a constitution. "To win the war on terror, empowering Iraqis is fundamental."

As if to signal that he was serious about ending his control, Bremer sat silently on a chair at the side of the auditorium last night, while the nine leading Governing Council members unveiled the new plan from the stage on which Bremer regularly briefs reporters.

While Bremer's administration will disappear this summer, soldiers will almost certainly remain, according to US and Iraqi officials. But the 180,000 or so coalition soldiers in Iraq -- about 131,000 of whom are American -- will stay only at the invitation of a new government and their number will shrink dramatically.

"If we need them, we will ask them to stay," said Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, who is the Governing Council's rotating president for November. "If not, we will respectfully say: `Bye-bye, dear friends, we are grateful to you for what you have done.'"

Coalition officials said last night there had been no specific deal about how American soldiers will operate in Iraq after the power transfer.

Despite last night's celebratory atmosphere, several thorny questions remained. The United States still has not accomplished its two most urgent stated goals: capturing or killing Saddam Hussein; and finding weapons of mass destruction. US and Iraqi officials did not specify who would continue those tasks after the handover.

Iraqi officials were also vague on who would lead a new government. In a surprise answer to a reporter's question, Talabani said: "We will find a good prime minister next month," long before a new government is installed. A new president will be appointed only once a sovereign government is elected in late 2005.

For Iraqis, the new government will look stunningly different, both from the Hussein regime under which they lived for 23 years and from the Governing Council. Chosen in proportion to the population in each province, the government is likely to have far more Iraqis who have lived through Hussein's iron rule. Iraqis have widely assailed the council, most of whose members are former exiles freshly home from decades in the West.

Speculation has been intense for days about what shape a new government would take. Bremer met for several hours Friday with key Governing Council figures. Yesterday's secret afternoon meeting -- which lasted "for a few hours," Senor said -- was held in Talabani's home, a mansion at the end of a well-guarded, dead-end street along a strip of villas on the east bank of the Tigris River.

The deal was struck after hours of intense debate between Bremer and 23 members of the Governing Council, a body appointed by US officials only four months ago.

In a last-minute diplomatic flurry, the two sides wrestled over the finer details of the timetable.

"We were probably more in a hurry than they were," said Adnan Pachachi, Iraq's former foreign minister from the 1960s who returned from exile in Britain this year.