Australia baulks at US plans for a postwar Iraq By Marian Wilkinson in Washington and Tom Allard
Australia has expressed concern to the United States about plans to rule Iraq for up to two years following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
Canberra voiced its fears after Australian observers attended a secret two-day meeting in Washington on how Iraq was to be run after a war.
The meeting, held by the Pentagon's postwar Iraq planning office, was described as a rehearsal for administering Iraq by US officials and their coalition supporters for up to two years until a new Iraqi Government could be put in place.
Australia and Britain want greater United Nations involvement in postwar Iraq, more opportunities for Iraqi opposition figures to participate and a swifter move to democratic elections.
"We've made it clear to the United States that we think it's very important that the United Nations has a key role in Iraq," Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said yesterday. "I don't think it's necessarily going to be quite as simple as a US-led military administration."
The role for the US to maintain security in Iraq was "short-term", he added.
Government sources fear the US plans could provoke further hostility towards the West in Muslim countries and undermine assurances that the US and its allies are liberators, not conquerors.
The Pentagon hopes that the Australian Government will make a greater contribution to postwar Iraq than the small humanitarian effort so far discussed. However, the Prime Minister, John Howard, is resisting efforts to draw Australia into it.
There are signs that the Bush Administration is deeply divided over what role the UN should play after the war. Some Pentagon officials want the US to be free from UN restraint.
Others, including some senators, believe that a UN presence will make a postwar administration more politically palatable in the region and cheaper.
The postwar plans were discussed last week with Iraq opposition leaders, who are being asked to sit on a "consultative council" advising US administrators. However, the opposition has been angered by US insistence that it will be in charge of the civilian government and overseeing reconstruction and humanitarian aid.
A Pentagon lawyer, Michael Mobbs, was named as the new civil administrator for Iraq. He would answer to the US military governor, General Tommy Franks, one report said.
Mr Mobbs's appointment will also be viewed as controversial. He came to prominence in Washington for his legal arguments to a US court that an American citizen captured in Afghanistan should be deemed an "enemy combatant" and denied any legal rights in the US.
Opposition leaders are meeting in northern Iraq this week and intend to debate the plans with US officials.
Time magazine reported yesterday that US construction companies were being briefed by the Bush Administration on $US900 million ($1.5 billion) worth of contracts to rebuild the country.
The contracts would go "exclusively to US companies and to subcontractors from nations officially designated as friendly", the report said.