Opponents to Iraqi leader hail Bush's 'Free Iraqis' ambassador

CAIRO, Egypt -- Iraqi opposition groups on Tuesday welcomed President Bush's decision to name a U.S. ambassador-at-large to coordinate U.S. contacts with opponents of President Saddam Hussein.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born special U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, will serve as the main U.S. contact and coordinator for the Iraqi opposition and will oversee Bush's preparations for Iraq after Saddam is ousted, the White House said Monday.

"This is a sound and positive step which the United States has taken in the right direction," Hoshyar Zibari, a leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said in an interview from London. "We are looking forward to cooperation with him."

Hamid al-Bayati of the Iran-based Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq said his group hopes that Khalilzad's appointment "will accelerate regime change in Iraq."

"His success will depend on how realistically he will deal with the components of the Iraqi society and especially with the sects and groups who suffered under Saddam," Bayati told The Associated Press.

Khalilzad was born to an upper class family in the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, studied at American University in Beirut and earned a doctorate in 1979 at the University of Chicago.

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