IRAQ: The controversial leader of one of Iraq's main opposition groups, Mr Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), has been secretly flown by the US military to southern Iraq, writes Luke Harding in Sulaimaniya, northern Iraq.
Mr Chalabi and his entourage were last night on their way to the southern city of Nassiriya. They disappeared over the weekend from the mountain resort of Dukan, in Kurdish northern Iraq, where the INC had established a headquarters.
Military officials at central command in Qatar declined to confirm Mr Chalabi was in southern Iraq.
But one American military source said: "You are going to start hearing a lot more about Iraqis working to rebuild the future of their country."
The White House is preparing to unveil its civilian administrator, the retired general Jay Garner, who will take temporary control of postwar Iraq. His administration will have 23 ministries, each headed by an American but with Iraqi "advisers". It is likely to establish a base in the southern port of Umm Qasr and extend its area of control as more cities are "liberated".
Gen Garner's main task is to prepare for what is being called the IIA - the Iraqi Interim Authority. It is scheduled to take over the government of Iraq after what is supposed to be a 90-day period of US military rule.
Prominent figures from the exiled opposition are likely to be included in the authority, though the US has become frustrated with their quarrels and is eager to use others from inside the country.
Plans for an Iraqi equivalent of the Afghan loya jirga envisage that 150 of the delegates, a majority, would be chosen from inside Iraq, and 100 from among the exiles.
Opposition sources say Mr Chalabi's ultimate ambition is to be prime minister but he has only been offered an advisory role in the finance ministry under GenGarner's administration. His nephew and several associates have been offered other advisory posts. There have been persistent murmurings in the US about the financial probity of Mr Chalabi's INC; in the past he was convicted in his absence by a Jordanian court of a multi-million dollar bank fraud (which he denies).
The offer of a post in the finance ministry was not made by Gen Garner but, according to sources close to the planning process, was imposed by the US deputy secretary of defence, Paul Wolfowitz, a hawk in the administration and one of Mr Chalabi's staunchest supporters.
Mr Chalabi's rise is strongly opposed by the CIA and the US State Department.
His support comes mainly from Congress and the Pentagon - though Iraqi opposition sources say even sections of the Pentagon have become disenchanted because of poor quality "intelligence" from inside Iraq that he provided before the war. Opposition sources say Mr Chalabi has been threatening to set up his own government in Iraq if Washington does not agree to his demands.
One theory is that his transfer to Nassiriya, far from preparing him for high office, could be an attempt to bring him more firmly under American control.
Last night Mr Chalabi announced that 700 "soldiers" of the INC had joined the campaign to get rid of Saddam Hussein, under the command of the US army and Gen Tommy Franks.
The uniformed men, designated the 1st Battalion Free Iraqi Forces, began deploying near Nassiriya yesterday and Mr Chalabi said they would fight alongside coalition forces in southern and central Iraq.
"We are proud to contribute our forces to Operation Iraqi Freedom. The war of national liberation which Iraqis have waged for 30 years is nearing its end," he added.
The Free Iraqi Forces consist of up to 3,000 volunteers, trained by the US for liaison with Iraqi civilians and aid organisations rather than fighting - though they have trained with small arms for self-defence.
They have been active elsewhere in Iraq; several were photographed chatting with civilians in Umm Qasr last month.
Mr Chalabi's family fled Baghdad in 1958 and he has only been back briefly, organising resistance in the 1990s from the Kurdish north.