Opposition Iraqis meet over future government

More than 100 exiled Iraqis from opposition groups have gathered in the Spanish capital Madrid for a weekend of talks on future…

More than 100 exiled Iraqis from opposition groups have gathered in the Spanish capital Madrid for a weekend of talks on future democracy in Iraq.

Members of the pro-U.S Iraqi National Congress, the Shi'ite Muslim party Al Dawa, the Iraqi Communist Party, Kurdish parties and other groups were taking part.

The US administrator in Iraq, Mr Jay Garner has said the process of forming an Iraqi-run government will begin by next weekend.

However, in many parts of Iraq it is still far from who was in control.

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Shi'ite Muslim clerics are running the holy Iraqi city of Najaf without consulting US-led forces camped outside, a spokesman for the leader of one Shi'ite group said yesterday.

But US troops on the outskirts said they were consulting a retired Iraqi army colonel who had been appointed mayor and was presiding over a council of elders, including Shi'ite clerics.

The apparently contradictory statements highlighted confusion and disputes about who is in charge in many Iraqi cities - including Baghdad.

Cooperation has started to replace the violence and looting in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul that followed Saddam's fall, but residents fear trouble as rival groups vie for power.

Iraq's battered hospitals are struggling to recover and it could take months to restore services after wholesale looting. Most hospitals are functioning at 25 per cent capacity and some doctors cannot afford to drive to work.