New administration offers US a force to reckon with

BAGHDAD -- Legally, nothing is supposed to change in Iraq until June 30, when US administrator L. Paul Bremer III hands over power to Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

But practically, yesterday marked the birth of a government that -- however suspect its origins in the eyes of some Iraqi observers -- has the influence and soon the authority to act on behalf of the Iraqi people. And it is already beginning to exert that influence.

Although Iraq's new leaders are largely seen as America's preferred candidates, Allawi and President Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer have already showed they will be tough negotiators, pushing for a bigger slice of sovereign authority than the United States initially wanted to surrender.

Yesterday, Allawi thanked America for liberating Iraq from the "tyrant" Saddam Hussein, but pointedly said his government would be seeking a full writ of sovereignty from the United Nations.

"These are not America's puppets," US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Washington.

Suddenly, after a year in which it was accountable only to the Pentagon, the US military command, with its 138,000 American troops, will have to reach a status of forces agreement with Iraq's government. That task is not likely to be easy in a place where the US military has taken over choice real estate, closed roads, and regularly been blamed for the killing and abuse of civilians at checkpoints, during raids, and in detention.

Allawi's government is already significantly influencing the new UN resolution that will map out Iraq's relationship with the world body in the coming years. Yesterday, US and British officials presented a second draft of the resolution that gives more power to the interim government, after complaints by Iraqi leaders and Security Council members who said they would only sign on if the text spelled out the powers of the new government and was accepted by the Iraqi people.

Hoshiyar Zebari, Iraq's newly appointed foreign minister, traveled to New York yesterday to negotiate the details of the resolution as Security Council members met over a revised text.

The new draft states that the mandate of the US-led multinational force "shall expire upon completion of the political process," described in the resolution as the election of a government after a constitution has been drafted. According to State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, that is expected to take place before the end of 2006. However the draft resolution circulated yesterday also states that the multinational force would be ready "to terminate this mandate earlier if requested."

Yesterday's appointment of Yawer, two vice presidents, and 29 ministers followed intense negotiations over recent weeks and a marathon weekend session.

Yawer was appointed after a particularly difficult, behind-the-scenes battle for the presidency between him and Adnan Pachachi, an 81-year-old former diplomat favored by Washington. Until yesterday morning, it was unclear which man would get the nod.

Council member Naseer al-Chaderchi said the United States acceded to the Governing Council's choice by naming Yawer as president. And he said that the dissolution of the Governing Council would allow the new Cabinet to get an earlier start on staking out positions different from those of the occupation authority.

Pachachi said yesterday that he had been offered the job of president but turned it down because he did not have the support of the rest of the Governing Council.

"The president should be a factor of unity, to avoid anything that is a disruption," he said.

But Pachachi insisted that he had broad support among Iraqis.

"The Iraqi people expressed freely that they prefer me to anyone else," he said. "I appreciate this, and I will never forget it."

An aide to a governing council member said US officials finally decided to back Yawer because they wanted to make security the top priority and believed Yawer's membership in one of the country's largest tribes would help him quell violence by reaching out to tribal leaders who could appeal to their clans for calm.

The level of control Americans had on the process of selecting the new government remained a major issue yesterday in Washington and Baghdad as political observers questioned the transparency of the process.

President Bush went out of his way to diminish the US role in choosing the new government, saying that UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi had orchestrated the process, as was his mission.

But UN officials denied that Brahimi had the final say over the government, saying only that the officials chosen had been on Brahimi's lists of possible candidates.

The US-led Coalition Provisional Authority "governs the country. Please do not forget the context in which Mr. Brahimi was working," said UN spokesman Fred Eckhard. "Mr. Brahimi did not go there to make a selection. He went there to advise and consult."

A senior official involved with diplomacy said that the United States narrowed down the possible candidates for president to two or three names who would be acceptable to the United States, and then let Brahimi and the Governing Council members haggle over the final results.

Signaling that Iraqi leaders had exerted far more control over the process than previously imagined, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that Allawi selected the Cabinet positions from the list that Brahimi provided.

Farah Stockman reported from Washington. Thanassis Cambanis reported from Baghdad.