A US-backed Iraqi governing council, intended to fill a political vacuum created by the fall of Saddam Hussein, will meet for the first time tomorrow, a spokesman for a major political party said today.
"Tomorrow is the first meeting of the Iraqi governing council," Mr Adel Abed al-Mahdi, spokesman for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said.
The first Iraqi body to have some executive powers since US and British forces occupied Iraq, the governing council has been long awaited by Iraqis who cite the lack of a national government as one of their main frustrations.
The US administrator for Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, held talks today with top Iraqi politicians, including exiles who returned to Baghdad after the fall of Saddam on April 9th, to finalise plans to form the council.
Political sources said Mr Bremer would announce the make-up of the council tomorrow. It is expected to have 13 Shi'ite Muslims, five Sunnis, five Kurds, one Christian and one Turkmen, the sources said, reflecting the sectarian and ethnic make-up of Iraq's 26 million population.