Iraqi opposition forces confer with U.S. officials

WASHINGTON - In talks with the six leading Iraqi opposition groups, the Bush administration Friday stepped up its efforts to outline a new political future for Iraq after the ouster of President Saddam Hussein and pledged to "enhance" its work with the opposition.

The two-hour meeting was also designed to signal new unity - at least in public - both among the disparate array of opposition forces and within the Bush administration, U.S. officials said. The talks at the State Department were attended by a cross-section of top administration officials often viewed to be at odds with one another over Iraq strategy.

"We focused on the importance of coordination. We have coordination within the U.S. government," a senior administration official told reporters after the talks.

The senior official said the time had come for the Iraqi opposition to "engage more deeply and more prominently on a whole range of issues, both with each other, with the international community and Iraq's neighbors." In turn, the United States pledged to "protect" the Iraqi opposition from oppression by Baghdad, although the senior official refused to spell out the American commitment.

He did say that if Hussein moved against the northern Kurds, as he has done in the past, the United States would respond. He did not elaborate.

U.S. officials clearly hope that this is a turning point in the other half of the Iraq campaign - forging a representative group of Iraqis to plan for the aftermath of any military operation and to step in and help once Hussein is gone.

Decades of squabbling among Iraq's rival ethnic and religious groups have prevented the creation of an effective opposition, a major factor in helping Hussein to maintain control over a deeply divided population.

Building momentum

"We're at a point generally - and this was affirmed during the discussions - where a lot of momentum has built across the board, where things that were between difficult and impossible before at a variety of levels are now achievable and necessary," the senior administration official said.

The six opposition groups and the Bush administration now plan to intensify efforts to create a political alternative and widen the opposition base.

Washington will back a major conference of Iraqi dissidents, probably in Europe, within the next few weeks to develop practical plans for a political takeover, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

The conference could be similar to the U.S.-sponsored talks among Afghan opposition forces in Bonn last year to forge a united vision for a new government after the fall of the Taliban government at the hands of the U.S. military.

In separate briefings, the Iraqi opposition and U.S. officials said they had agreed on the principles for a new government in Baghdad.