Plan to run post-Saddam Iraq could start next week
U.S. official: New government 'on the drawing board'
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An attempt to install a post-Saddam Hussein government in Iraq might begin before the war is over, perhaps as soon as next week, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday.
"I think you'll see in the next week an organizing event that will start to bring that into focus," the official said. Asked where that would occur, the official said, "In Baghdad."
A rough design for an interim Iraqi government is "on the drawing board," but major decisions have yet to be made, a senior official involved in national security told CNN.
There are many uncertainties, such as how much of the existing bureaucracy can be incorporated into the new structure, the official said.
However, even as the military is "solidifying" control in Baghdad, some of the people working with the United States to form a new government "will be called on to take early steps in the transition," the official said.
Those steps might include helping the coalition use Iraqi television or other means to communicate with the Iraqi people.
The official said the United States wants to "get Iraqis communicating with Iraqis" as soon as possible to facilitate the process.
Saddam has ruled Iraq since 1979.
Thursday, as coalition forces advanced to the edges of Baghdad, a confident President Bush told Marines in North Carolina, "A vise is closing, and the days of a brutal regime are coming to an end."
-- CNN Senior White House correspondent John King contributed to this report.
