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Opposition meeting set Tuesday in Iraq
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States will host a conference of Iraqi opposition leaders Tuesday in Nasiriya to discuss the creation of an interim Iraqi authority, the State Department said Friday. Zalmay Khalilzhad, presidential envoy to the Iraqi opposition, will lead the U.S. delegation, accompanied by Ryan Crocker, deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said participants would include "Iraqis from newly freed areas" of the country, members of the Iraqi opposition and Iraqis who were involved with the State Department's Future of Iraq Project, which examined the rebuilding of Iraqi institutions. (More about the meeting) Gen. Tommy Franks, chief of the U.S. Central Command directing the war, would issue the invitations, Boucher said. A U.S official said participation in the conference "will be very wide, broad-based and definitely reflecting Iraq's religious and ethnic diversity." He said the Iraqis inside the country would be a "mixture of civilian and military leaders." Boucher said U.S. officials expect the meeting will be the first of several regional forums "for Iraqis to discuss their vision of the future and their ideas regarding the Iraqi interim authority." He said the Bush administration hopes the meetings will culminate "in a bigger meeting in Baghdad, to be held in the not-so-distant future, where an interim Iraqi authority would be chosen." Although reports have circulated suggesting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants to name Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi to head an interim authority, the Bush administration has backed away from Chalabi, and officials said they don't want to "anoint" anyone. One U.S. official said the administration "wants to see who has support, who is popular and who the Iraqis coalesce around." "We fully expect Ahmed to be part of an interim authority and that is fine," this official said. "But ... he shouldn't be the end-all, be-all. Let's at least have the appearance of democracy and giving people a voice." Administration officials said Iraqis from within the country have been emerging as people the United States can work with as it tries to start rebuilding Iraq. "A lot of tribal leaders, sheiks and others have already identified themselves as studied folks," another senior administration official told CNN. This official said these Iraqis have been proving themselves sympathetic to U.S. goals of liberating Iraq. Kanan Makiya, a member of the Iraqi National Congress, told an audience at a Washington think tank Tuesday that "people are emerging from cities" such as union and tribal leaders." "They are right now joining in their liberation," he said of Iraqis inside the country.
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