Iraq will be divided into three sectors patrolled by troops led by the United States, Britain and Poland, according to a senior US official.
Ten nations have offered troops which will form a "stabilisation force" to help oversee the country's rebuilding. They will be separate from the 135,000 combat troops still in Iraq after toppling Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration official said.
The exact size of the new force has not been determined but the United States, Britain, Poland, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Albania have offered troops for the policing effort. Representatives of those countries will meet with British officials May 7 and Polish officials May 22 to determine what forces each country will contribute and whether they will be put under British or Polish command.
The three Iraqi sectors have not yet been drawn up.
A US division of up to 20,000 troops would patrol one of the sectors, while the other two would each have a division of multinational troops under Britain and Poland.
Former US diplomat Paul Bremer is believed to have been chosen by the Bush administration to be the civilian administrator overseeing the reconstruction effort. He would replace retired General Jay Garner as the top US civilian official in the country.
Meanwhile, France and Germany Saturday reluctantly endorsed the U.S. plan to divide Iraq into three zones.
The initiative, unveiled as the European Union foreign ministers met on a Greek Aegean island, appeared to take EU officials by surprise. Some said they only learned of it from news reports quoting officials traveling with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who was on a visit to London.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the plan "is not a new situation and is not in contradiction with our discussion about giving the United Nations a role in postwar Iraq." The Americans "can do what they want. This does not bother us at all," said a French diplomat.
Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewiczs told reporters "this is a fresh responsibility for my country, but we are ready to share it." Poland "would prefer" a U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing the stabilization force, but that it should go ahead without one, if necessary, Cimoszewiczs said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
