US: The Bush administration has become so disillusioned with the council it hand-picked to carry out a political transition in Iraq that it is reported to be considering a fundamental change of policy to speed up the transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government.Conor O'Clery, North America Editor, reports from in New York
This week, the senior White House official responsible for overseeing the transition, Mr Robert Blackwill, will travel to Baghdad, where he will reportedly warn members of the Iraqi Governing Council to get its act together or become redundant.
With the alleged failure of the council to start the process of drawing up a new constitution, the US is now considering the creation of an interim Iraqi leadership which would emulate the Afghanistan model, according to the Washington Post. This idea was proposed by French diplomats before the new United Nations resolution on postwar Iraq was passed on October 17th, but it was rejected by the US.
It would involve holding a national Iraqi conference - like the Afghan loya jirga, which followed the defeat of the Taliban - to select a provisional government with sovereignty rights, according to US officials in Washington and Baghdad cited by the Post.
An unelected government has been in power for nearly two years in Afghanistan and elections will not be held there until next June.
Putting a sovereign government in place before drawing up a new constitution and elections would be a reversal of current American policy. The recent deadly successes of the insurgency against the American-led occupation has made the process more urgent, but the council has become dysfunctional, according to reports in the US media.
Several key council members, including the Pentagon-favoured Ahmad Chalabi, have been absent from Iraq for weeks, and only half a dozen of the 24 members turn up for meetings.
The UN Security Council gave the Iraqi Governing Council until December 15th to draw up a timetable for the drafting of a new constitution and for holding subsequent elections.
Washington is frustrated that council members spend more time on their own political or economic interests than in planning for Iraq's future, according to the Post, which quoted one US official as saying: "We're unhappy with all of them. They're not acting as a legislative or governing body, and we need to get moving."
Mr Blackwill is expected to discuss US options with the American administrator in Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, and report back to Washington on the status of the council, which has reportedly been losing credibility since it was appointed by the US to represent Iraqi ethnic and religious groupings.
France and several other Security Council members decided against sending troops to a multi-national force in Iraq partly because Washington refused to transfer sovereignty quickly to Iraqis.
The search for a way out of the Iraq crisis comes as pessimism grows in the US about finding an exit strategy and criticism mounts over the Bush administration's handling of Iraq policy.
A Newsweek poll, published yesterday, showed that 53 per cent of Americans do not believe there is a well-thought-out plan for postwar Iraq, a 5 per cent increase since October. The number who feel going to war with Iraq was the right decision has also slipped considerably - from more than 66 per cent in July to just 55 per cent this week.