Britain has been working on a plan to bring together Iraq's diverse groups at a conference to form a post-war administration in Baghdad, it emerged yesterday.
The round-table discussion, under the auspices of the United Nations, would be based on the Bonn conference in December 2001 which helped to form a new government in post-war Afghanistan.
Britain's Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, raised the prospect of the UN-led conference, which would bring together Iraqi Kurds, Shi'ites, Sunnis and other groups and factions, in a speech yesterday. It would put forward a Hamid Karzai-type leader to govern Iraq.
Officials were said to be carrying out substantial work behind the scenes on the plan, while Mr Straw has been sounding out the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, and other foreign ministers.
But Mr Straw's vision of the UN playing a leading role in such a conference appeared to be at odds with rumblings from the American administration.
Mr Straw said: "I very much hope that, following the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime, the UN will have a leading role in organising a conference to bring together representatives from all sections of Iraq's society. The objective of such a conference would be to place the responsibility for decisions about Iraq's political and economic future firmly in the hands of the Iraqi people."
"It's something that has been discussed here in the Foreign Office, but no doubt what we will be doing next is discussing it with our partners in the Security Council," he added.
However, the Guardian reported yesterday that the US is secretly planning to rule Iraq in the immediate aftermath of the war. Mr Powell said last week: "We didn't take on this huge burden with our coalition partners not to be able to have a significant dominating control over how it unfolds in the future." - (PA)