An Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim group said today it would not join an interim political council envisaged by Iraq's US-British occupying powers unless it was elected, not appointed by American administrator Mr Paul Bremer.
Mr Bremer met representatives from seven political groups and at least 10 prominent Iraqis yesterday to present his latest ideas on Iraq's political future after Saddam Hussein.
"We said at the meeting that we want an elected political council and an elected constitutional council," Hamed Bayati of the Iranian-backed Shi'ite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution (SCIRI) told Reuters.
"We will not participate in an administration that would be appointed by ambassador Bremer. This is also a decision taken by all the seven political parties," Bayati said.
None of the other six groups, composed mainly of former exiled foes of Saddam, has openly rejected Bremer's plan to name an interim council to help run Iraq, rather than have it elected by a national conference as previously proposed.
Bayati indicated that SCIRI could accept an appointed council if the Iraqi parties, not Bremer, named its members. SCIRI would keep up a dialogue with the Americans, he added.
A senior official of Masoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party, another of the seven factions, said the KDP was not "100 per cent satisfied" with Bremer's plan. He would not elaborate.