49 minutes ago
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
ROME - An Italian official resigned from the U.S.-led administration running Iraq (news - web sites), saying it is mismanaging reconstruction, out of touch with Iraqis and only fueling their anger, the Foreign Ministry and news reports said Monday.
"The provisional authority simply doesn't work," Marco Calamai, a special counselor to the authority in the province of Dhi Qar, told reporters in announcing his resignation, according to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Calamai said only an interim authority headed by the United Nations (news - web sites) could turn things around.
He said the American-led administration, headed by L. Paul Bremer, doesn't understand Iraqi society and has muddled reconstruction projects by delaying financing. He said its policies were in part to blame for last week's attack on the Italian Carabinieri barracks that killed 19 Italians, as well as 14 others.
The U.S.-led authority has created "delusion, social discontent and anger" among Iraqis and allowed terrorism to "easily take root," Corriere quoted Calamai as telling Italian journalists Sunday in Nasiriyah.
The attack on the barracks "is the consequence of a mistaken policy and an underevaluation of the complexity of the social structure of Iraq," he said. "There needs to be a radical change with respect to the policies taken so far by the USA."
The Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday that Calamai had resigned, but gave no further comment.